Well, Hello

It’s Saturday, isn’t it?

I am in the throes of con prep. Not for myself as an author – today, I go as Mom. I’ll be in the shadow of two teens doing their first cosplay, and they are about as excited as you can imagine – practically vibrating. They have been prepping all week, since they first realized they were going. With my schedule, I’ve been helping a bit here and there, but it’s mostly closet cosplay. In the long run, I’m sure they will want to up their game, but hopefully today we’ll meet some like-minded cosplayers who can help them more than I!

We were looking at the panels at the con, which are not many. Comic cons, it seems, are not the same as Lit cons. There was one on Geek Feminism, and I jokingly told them they couldn’t go to it – and I wouldn’t cross it’s threshold! My girls both made disgusted noises. They don’t identify as feminists, they informed me. Feminists are ridiculously over the top. Oh, good…

But this should be a fun outing. The shared joy of the young ones meeting like-minded geeks is always a delight, and while one of them has been to a con (LibertyCon, in fact) she informed me the other day that it wasn’t her con, so it didn’t count. It has me thinking about my first con. It wasn’t LibertyCon, but a warm-up for that family reunion of sorts, which I was very excited for. I went to Boskone, by myself, which was difficult (for reasons), and met up with friends, and had a lovely time, all in all. The girls don’t have friends to meet, but I suspect we will come home with new ones made.

This is, after all, the point of cons, is it not? For the fans of the nerdy to meet and greet, exchange their passions, and come away refreshed and joyful from the exchange. After the last few years being drawn into the whole sordid mess of the Hugos, I’m delighted to be granted a second chance. A chance to see the younger generation, unaware of the absurdity of their elders, mingling and enjoying themselves.

I’ll report back later! Sorry this is so short, but I have to go do a bit of body painting (arms, legs and face! LOL)

21 thoughts on “Well, Hello”

  1. They have friends there. They just haven’t met those friends yet.

    There’s a qualitative difference between “Friends because we went to the same school” and “Friends because we went to the same con and love the same things.” Both friends, but one is accident and one is selection.

    1. I went with three fannish friends to the da Vinci exhibit at Cincinnati Museum Center. On the way down we saw the big billboard for the Cincinnati Comic Expo, and they all said it seemed like it would be too crowded to be fun. On the way back (long story) we passed the convention center and saw the crowds outside, some in costume, who seemed to be having a good time even waiting to get in.

  5. One of the ways this raging introvert approaches cons is “place full of friends I haven’t met yet”. It helps to offset the automatic reaction of “too many people. Must find quiet corner and hide.”

    1. I have that reaction to large(r) cities. “How long to ‘safely outside town’?” Big cities, to me, are like ionizing radiation – useful, but exposure of significant intensity should be short and infrequent.

      1. I’ve been to New York City twice in 30 years. I’d like to go back once more, to spend more time at the Met (both branches [main and Cloisters]) and a few other museums, and that’s it. Once in Paris was enough. I’d like to go to London (again) and Amsterdam for the museums, but not to linger. Too many people, too expensive, too much muchness.

        1. I can handle big cities for quite a long time but I always end up spending quite a lot of that time in my hotel room. The outings, especially in the first days, will be more like quick recon missions into potentially hostile territory, I go, see, get supplies if I need them, retreat. After a few of those I might linger in some interesting spots once they start to feel a bit more familiar, but there is always the urge to get back to the secluded cave aka hotel room.

          The main problem I have with something like cons when compared to generic city etc trips is that there is the feeling I should try to meet new people. City vacations actually are a tad more relaxing because then there is no need to socialize. When it’s a crowd of strangers and you don’t need to socialize it’s way more manageable to me. Trying to be social is much harder.

  6. My first Con was Bubonicon. And not just any year, but in a major anniversary year. I knew I’d found my (other) tribe when a gorgeous gal walked past in the uniform of the Royal Manticorian Navy and the guys standing beside me said, “Oh wow, where’d she find the insignia?”

  10. About a decade ago I started going to cons. I went to my local con, which was getting larger in those days, and had a blast checking out the stuff for sale in the merchant’s hall, seeing the costumes and meeting with people who shared my passions. By the end of the night, I was dancing with someone else’s slave girl* and I knew this was where I wanted to be.

    *Note: Not a real slave, because that would be bad. She was a volunteer and the “auction” was for charity. The following year I brought enough money to “buy” my own slave. 😉

  11. I started off with a bang: Discon in 1974. Wow. Met a lot of new friends there who also came from my home town (Chicago) and scads of others from elsewhere whom I mainly saw at cons from then on. Back then, we talked about all sorts of things and nobody ever got offended and yelled or stalked off or tried to get somebody thrown out of the con. We all understood that differences of opinion did not preclude discussion or cooperation or even affection. It was a kind of golden age, hairstyles and harvest gold appliances notwithstanding. (I actually had a hairstyle then; what a concept!)

    My fondest dream (in both senses of “fond,” perhaps) is that this sort of culture will someday return to SFF.

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