The Last Science Fiction Convention
I attended my last science fiction convention over the 4th of July weekend, 2019. It was one that I worked on as a committee member and tried to bring a great con-going experience to the fans in the tradition of the old SF cons. But the old traditional conventions are slowly dying, kept alive by an ever shrinking group of aging SF fans. The old conventions used to be about writers and artists of science fiction and fantasy. Starting in the 30’s and 40’s these conventions centered around a writer or two and other people interested in costuming, comics, singing, SF and Fantasy art, crafts and self-published fanzines and other self written materials.
What began the decline of these old-style conventions was the eventual rise of movie and TV fandoms. In the 60’s there was a number of ground-breaking TV series, most notably Star Trek, which electrified fans around the world. Trek was first rolled into traditional conventions and then began to break out of them with their own focused stand-alone Trek extravaganzas. One forgets the impact that Trek had in the mid-70’s, this was the first of the mega-media fandoms and paved the way for the next big thing. There were many memorable movies of that era but none so impactful as Star Wars. Building on the experiences of earlier Trek fandom many Star Wars fans build up an impressive mega-fandom of its own and both continue to this day, stronger then ever.
The latest generation of SF fans are now more interested in meeting media actors and actresses then book writers and artists. While SF book sales are still quite impressive, it is nowhere close to the amount of money spent on SF movies and streaming TV. The so-called comic cons around the country have learned to monetize fandom with appearances of the latest TV and movie personalities. Indeed, the experience seeking younger fans are now much more interested in paying large amounts to spend a few seconds with their favorite star and getting a photo with them. I suppose that this is a natural evolution of the conventions, but I still prefer the thrill of meeting a SF writer whose works I have read over the years and who has worked extensively in the genre, then an actor who has no interest in SF and only sees it as a job and money earner.
(Below, my photo of Robert A. Heinlein, ca 1977, a ground-breaking SF author active during the 50’s and 60’s. I had several chances to meet and talk with this great writer at science fiction conventions.)
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