There are lots of conversations on Twitter about how WorldCon is aging and not inclusive enough. I have a few thoughts on that I want to get out before I forget–I do have other thoughts to write up, about the different panels and all, but I’m planning on getting to that tomorrow or over the weekend. Hopefully, I will.
But for this. The larger number of posts and comments that I’ve seen have been from professionals, and few from fans.
My experience was that the con was relatively inclusive, for the most part. There were some instances where I felt a bit on the edge of a circle looking in. Literally. At times, the authors/agents/editors would be standing or sitting in loose circles, talking with each other, and the body language would be closed and not too inviting. I would guess, since Rob and I know some of them, that it wasn’t intentional, and that they likely weren’t aware of it.
But it does make me feel somewhat awkward when trying to approach anyone. Because they’re talking, and you don’t want to interrupt. Even when they say it’s okay.
Plus this tends to be in the bar, and I don’t know about most people, but I get a bit overwhelmed with so many people trying to talk over each other and start to get a bit dazed and mentally shut down.
Aside from that, everyone Rob and I encountered was quite nice. So much so that when someone would wave at us, I wondered if Rob had waved first(aside from the one time Chuck Wendig waved at me from about 2 feet away as he passed), and they were returning the wave, but no, they recognized us. Mur Lafferty waved enthusiastically at us from across the street, and Seanan McGuire waved at us from across the hotel lobby. That was an odd realization.
I can’t speak to the diversity of the con because I didn’t notice. I saw a whole lot of people in geeky t-shirts, some dragging containers of books, some in scooters, and a couple with really frikkin awesome multi-colored hair.
To me, it felt like a much larger, longer version of Boskone with a whole helluva lot more authors. I had fun, and I so very much want to go to LonCon next year.
