Escapade Con Report--part two

[tenaya]

The 1pm panel was Cabals and Conspiracies and Conflict: The Myth and Realities of Fannish Status. A discussion of fannish status and how it affects (and doesn't affect) fandom. My main fandom is Stargate and while it's currently up to its ears in conspiracies and conflicts, I was still curious as to what issues exist in other fandoms. I had the impression that this had been a hot topic in certain circles--possibly in the LJ crowd--and at times I felt like I had come into the middle of a conversation.

There are three ways to become well known in fandom. The first is by being popular which equates to being accepted. The second is through leadership and the third through notoriety. There was a spirited discussion about BNFs (Big Name Fans.) It was perceived that some BNFs got more strokes/validation/feedback than was thought was deserved to them because of the BNF status. What actually came first? The feedback or the BNF status? Status was to be envied because it could be turned into better connection and access to the "cool kids" of fandom.

I think it was here that groups were noted to fight for ascendancy with the example of a series of Highlander Duncan/Methos lists that became increasingly more restrictive in content. Also, just because you could be a BNF in one fandom, that status did not necessarily transfer into your next fandom.

Slash fans have always been nerds, but within our own society, we still have the possibility to become the popular "cheerleader." Fandom as a meritocracy was discussed. Status is fluid--"what have you done for me lately?" There was laughter over whether Escapade was a cabal. Personally, I think of it more as a summit meeting as it certainly isn't a secret.

So, I'm left to ponder what else goes with fannish status? You get name recognition; you get a bigger splash anytime you toss something into the fannish pool (whether it is perceived as a "quality" endeavor or not,) you get to hold court at cons or in your mailing lists (large or small.) Does it also mean your opinion has more value? Does it mean that you expect that your opinion to have more value? If you have pursued status, does this mean that only people on your own status level--or those above you-- have any value? Are other fans with lower status worth knowing? Does it give you permission to dismiss their presence and efforts? Would you bother writing a loc to someone of lesser status than you or do you fear that that could make you lose status? If you think of yourself as high status, do you still take risks with your projects or do you feel the need to behave in the same manner that won you this status? Does the number of BNFs increase with the length of time a fandom exists? Does having lots of high status fans become a detriment to fandom, causing an increased competition and friction between them as they work to stay at the top? Does being a high status fan encourage the practice of mocking/attacking/ridiculing those with lower status? Does all this work together to decrease variety in fandom?

But I digress....

The next panel was Don't Know Much About History and it was a flurry of information, some of which I'm just going to list. Go, explore.

Rough Medicine by Joan Druett (for the Hornblower crowd)
Sky Coyote by Kaye Baker
Authors Connie Willis, Mary Renault
Michael Jerks 13th Century

Costumers manifesto at www.costumes.org
www.daedalusbooks.com
searchedu.com (a search engine for .edu sites)
alltheweb.com
netserf.org (for Medieval resources)

Writers Digest of Everyday life in Ancient Egypt
Greenburgs History of Homosexuality


Next was the panel on Real Person Slash. I went to this to try to understand what this craze was all about. Obviously, lots of folk were very enthusiastic about this, even about things that still seemed to embarrass them to admit to. It was fun to watch . They did acknowledge the arguments against it as well as the concern/fears about the possibility that this genie could decant rather disastrously.

At 5pm, I gave the Generation Gap panel a miss to meet up with some SG fans. The group was rather large and when they decided to go down to dinner to the hotel restaurant, I had to take my leave as I had a previous engagement for dinner. My roomies and I have a tradition of having a Thai dinner on Friday night. We had picked a restaurant out of the yellow pages that promised "The best Thai food in town." It was a claim we'd decided to challenge. Chai's Thai Cusine was tucked away in a unimpressive strip mall, but it really did have the best Thai food I'd ever had. We ordered five or six dishes and were mightily impressed with most of them.

The Friday night vid show started late, but since I shudder at the thought of trying to get all that machinery to work together, I don't complain too much about that. This was a Viewers Choice/request show and there were lots of vids I hadn't seen before and many that I remembered fondly. The room had plenty of seating--even if the chairs made me wriggly after a few hours. I do enjoy the experience of watching vids in a room full of folks.

Since the show ran long, the Escapade Party was truncated, which is a shame. I do enjoy circulating and having a chance to meet people for the first time or have a brief chat with others I haven't seen in a long while. And the free booze. There just aren't enough hours in a day for all the fun to fit into, unfortunately.

Wow. All this and I'm only finishing the first day of the con!