Later during the con, there was a - panel? presentation? something - where GRRM talked about the then-upcoming Game of Thrones series. He walked out of it surrounded by a flock of mostly young women, and I so happened to be standing in earshot at the time.
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It's a feature as well as a bug, which means that, while you can't eradicate it, you absolutely have to be *aware* of it, because while you might not notice Your Circle forming? Everyone on the outside of it sees its circumference lit up in neon.
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So, what do you do with all those circles? Ideally, you try to make them into chainmail, not polka dots: you want connections that links groups together in a way that acknowledges both overlap and difference, not variously-sized, solid-colour blocs broken up by gaping spaces.
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The past is important, but it shouldn't be elevated at the expense of the present, nor lauded to the exclusion of the future. And when GRRM and Silverberg get up and tell the same six stories every year, that's what they're doing: speaking just to Their Circle, the glorious past.
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I don't know what Worldcon will look like in the future, because I don't know enough about conrunning to comment. Can the Hugos be detached from it? Is there an enduring core of people who keep making the same mistakes each year, or is it the lack of same that's the issue?
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All I know is, given that SFF pro/friend cliques are inevitable, we need to aim for chainmail, not polka dots. And right now, I don't think the same old guard of dudes can be trusted to achieve that.
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But even though it frequently exasperates me, I don't want to give up on SFF fandom entirely, either. It matters a lot to me that the writers I grew up respecting welcomed me into the genre - that they were all, unfailingly, polite and kind, even if I only met them for a moment.
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GRRM was disinterested that first time we met; we've met subsequently, too - even had an actual conversation one time, though probably not one he enjoyed or recalls - and I would be startled if he knew me from Adam.
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I briefly met Silverberg in 2018 at San Jose; he looked through me, not recognising my name even though I was on the list of Best Fan Writer nominees he was set to read out that evening. Neither man was rude, per se; they just weren't interested.
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But it doesn't have to be that way, is the point. That aloof indifference to any newcomers whose names you don't recognise - that shouldn't be the default, and I hate that so many writers and fans have just had to accept it as such.
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Because when I was a tiny new writer at my first EVER Industry Event, a small dinner at my publisher's place,
@FIRECATz greeted me happily and said nice things about my forthcoming book, which I hadn't even known she'd read. Because@KateElliottSFF and@Kit_Kerr talked to me.Show this thread -
Because even when I embarrassed myself in full fangirl mode meeting
@TamoraPierce, she was kind and funny and, after I gave her a copy of my book, sought me out later to have me sign it. Because@robinhobb was gracious and friendly and warm.Show this thread -
THAT was my introduction to fandom: established women making time for a newcomer, holding out a hand and acting as if I was in the right place. And that is what I think fandom should always strive to be, across all axes of marginalisation: a place where we welcome the future.
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Because the thing about the future? It rarely looks quite like the past, and you have to lay ground for it in the present. And that's impossible to do if your base approach to greeting *new* people is to be, on some level, tuning out anyone who Doesn't Already Matter.
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Is it really so hard to be welcoming? To look at newcomers and be excited just by their presence, without running a mental calculation about whether you want to endorse them; if they'll be worth the investment? Apparently, for some, it is. And they shouldn't be in charge.
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