Approaching Worldcon, and the Growing Fake Geek Girl Divide
Seanan McGuire did a Tumblr post recently about this sudden "credentials check" business sprouting up in the extended SF community. It makes a lot of good points about turning the "cred check" back on guys, who either don't like it or don't recognize that it's the same crap they're pulling, and also reminds us that hey? We all have things to be geeky about. That's fine. That's good. Enjoy the variety, dammit.
I discovered several fan communities at a small convention simply by wandering around, finding their parties attended but not crowded, and asking them what they were in to. And they were delighted to tell me what they loved enough to want to get together with other fans and talk about. They weren't snobby because I didn't know their thing, and they didn't try to convert me overnight. But they did make me appreciative of all the good things about Dr. Who, or the Browncoats...or any of several other areas of fandom. I'm not a huge anime fan, but I have several fine examples on my shelf, thanks to friends who are seriously into it. Same with manga. I pursue story. Does your "thing" have a corner with good story and characters? I'd be happy to visit.
But don't give me crap about having no street cred. I played that game long ago with the big boys. Because I didn't spend ten pages dissecting a spaceship or beating the physics into the ground in my SF, they decided I wasn't writing real SF.
Lots of vindication when they found the Titanic at the bottom of a cold cold ocean being devoured by mineral-leeching microbes.
I also cared about character growth and interaction. Girl cooties!
Unless they want to give you a Pulitzer for it. Then it's literature.
Don't be That Guy who told me something wasn't "real programming." Be Tommy Llewellyn, who when he first met me at a SFWA party (and this was a man in his late sixties at the youngest) tentatively asked if I was writing fantasy. And when I said, no, it was SF...his eyes lit up. He was a fascinating, funny man, relieved my worries in my research into Gaelic (Scottish or Irish, and did it matter which translation I looked for in this case?) and it was a great grief when I was told he died not long after I met him.
I remember Edward Llewellyn. I occasionally still see That Guy, and still can't remember his name. He has no clue he's in that category.
You wanna start questioning me about the DC universe? Don't bother--I know just enough to go a movie and let my friends' enthusiasm for it wash over me. You start badgering me about My Little Pony, and I will ask you who Elrod's father was--or his brother. I can play those games. I just don't have time to play them about your corner of the universe. I'm enjoying my corner, and I'm trying to create a few new pockets of reality over here. I want you to enjoy your corner of speculative fiction, and I enjoy hearing from that corner of the globe.
Just don't tell me my corner doesn't belong. Isn't "real." Don't tell that kid over there in the gorgeous costume that the color is wrong, either. Maybe they look better in that color, and if you're going to the trouble to make up a costume? Why not make it how you want it to look? Kinda like the guy I saw in the Elric costume he made from scratch. He was very cool about it, happy to talk about it--and also happy to just be. Or the woman who was a Necromancer from the Tepper True Game series. No complete description of what they looked like could be found--but when she walked out, we all knew we were in the presence of a True Game Necromancer. That's presence.
Why am I here? Because nothing interests me more than Story, and making it matter for people's lives. Like I put on the Book View Cafe web site:
“I’m interested in how people respond to unusual circumstances. Choice interests me. What is the metaphor for power, for choice? In SF it tends to be technology (good, bad and balanced) while in Fantasy the metaphor is magic - who has it, who wants or does not want it, what is done with it, and who/what the person or culture is after the dust has settled. A second metaphor, both grace note and foundation, is the need for and art of healing.”
So. All your hints are here, in this journal. I am patient as a stone. I try hard to be courteous, to listen, to understand and translate when necessary. I try to turn harsh words with courtesy.
But three times is Game. And I am under no obligation to allow badgers. Trolls had better be the Terry Pratchett type. Or else you will be told to go annoy someone else.
But if you want to make sure I heard about this great author you're reading? Bring it on. Because I'm behind in my reading, and there's always room for another on the list! Just be Tommy--don't be That Guy.
I discovered several fan communities at a small convention simply by wandering around, finding their parties attended but not crowded, and asking them what they were in to. And they were delighted to tell me what they loved enough to want to get together with other fans and talk about. They weren't snobby because I didn't know their thing, and they didn't try to convert me overnight. But they did make me appreciative of all the good things about Dr. Who, or the Browncoats...or any of several other areas of fandom. I'm not a huge anime fan, but I have several fine examples on my shelf, thanks to friends who are seriously into it. Same with manga. I pursue story. Does your "thing" have a corner with good story and characters? I'd be happy to visit.
But don't give me crap about having no street cred. I played that game long ago with the big boys. Because I didn't spend ten pages dissecting a spaceship or beating the physics into the ground in my SF, they decided I wasn't writing real SF.
Lots of vindication when they found the Titanic at the bottom of a cold cold ocean being devoured by mineral-leeching microbes.
I also cared about character growth and interaction. Girl cooties!
Unless they want to give you a Pulitzer for it. Then it's literature.
Don't be That Guy who told me something wasn't "real programming." Be Tommy Llewellyn, who when he first met me at a SFWA party (and this was a man in his late sixties at the youngest) tentatively asked if I was writing fantasy. And when I said, no, it was SF...his eyes lit up. He was a fascinating, funny man, relieved my worries in my research into Gaelic (Scottish or Irish, and did it matter which translation I looked for in this case?) and it was a great grief when I was told he died not long after I met him.
I remember Edward Llewellyn. I occasionally still see That Guy, and still can't remember his name. He has no clue he's in that category.
You wanna start questioning me about the DC universe? Don't bother--I know just enough to go a movie and let my friends' enthusiasm for it wash over me. You start badgering me about My Little Pony, and I will ask you who Elrod's father was--or his brother. I can play those games. I just don't have time to play them about your corner of the universe. I'm enjoying my corner, and I'm trying to create a few new pockets of reality over here. I want you to enjoy your corner of speculative fiction, and I enjoy hearing from that corner of the globe.
Just don't tell me my corner doesn't belong. Isn't "real." Don't tell that kid over there in the gorgeous costume that the color is wrong, either. Maybe they look better in that color, and if you're going to the trouble to make up a costume? Why not make it how you want it to look? Kinda like the guy I saw in the Elric costume he made from scratch. He was very cool about it, happy to talk about it--and also happy to just be. Or the woman who was a Necromancer from the Tepper True Game series. No complete description of what they looked like could be found--but when she walked out, we all knew we were in the presence of a True Game Necromancer. That's presence.
Why am I here? Because nothing interests me more than Story, and making it matter for people's lives. Like I put on the Book View Cafe web site:
“I’m interested in how people respond to unusual circumstances. Choice interests me. What is the metaphor for power, for choice? In SF it tends to be technology (good, bad and balanced) while in Fantasy the metaphor is magic - who has it, who wants or does not want it, what is done with it, and who/what the person or culture is after the dust has settled. A second metaphor, both grace note and foundation, is the need for and art of healing.”
So. All your hints are here, in this journal. I am patient as a stone. I try hard to be courteous, to listen, to understand and translate when necessary. I try to turn harsh words with courtesy.
But three times is Game. And I am under no obligation to allow badgers. Trolls had better be the Terry Pratchett type. Or else you will be told to go annoy someone else.
But if you want to make sure I heard about this great author you're reading? Bring it on. Because I'm behind in my reading, and there's always room for another on the list! Just be Tommy--don't be That Guy.