My dust-ups with the “Save Karina” fans the last couple of days… and a recent invitation to speak on a panel at Comic-Con next month… reminded me of something that happened at a Worldcon many years ago.
At the time, I was a writer for STARLOG, and the editors hosted a panel called “Meet the Starlog Writers,” or something like that. Much to my surprise, quite a few people showed up… though many of them were dressed as Klingons or trying to squeeze into Federation uniforms that were two-sizes too small.
Anyway, there were a lot of inane questions… (“if they did a mirror-universe episode of LOST IN SPACE, what color do you think their uniforms would be?”). Finally, one guy stood up and complained about how inane and stupid the questions were… how could people be some obsessed with such drivel when there were far more interesting and provocative issues to explore.
My ears perked up. Maybe something interesting was finally going to happen…
The guy said “It’s time we confronted the issue of fan bigotry.”
Wow. Fan bigotry. It sounded important. It sounded provocative. Though I had no idea what he was talking about…
The guy went on, “We can’t turn our backs to it any more. We can’t pretend it doesn’t exists. We must deal with the hatred and unfairness shown by Star Trek fans towards Space: 1999 fans once and for all!”
I must admit I broke out laughing…
The poor guy turned bright red, quaking with rage… “This is a SERIOUS issue!”
Of course, that only made it worse.
I wasn’t subscribing to VARIETY at the time, but I bet he took out an ad….
If you want to know why I got burned out on science fiction, guys like that are why. I left organized fandom (which often looks suspiciously like a half-assed cult minus a Jim Jones figure to provide Kool-Aid) when one of them called me at all hours to 1.) ask me to drive across town to drive him to the store or 2.) mention that Gowron had different forehead ridges on that week. This gentleman is two years older than I am (and I’m 38), lives in his mother’s basement, and has never had a job that paid more than minimum wage despite a college education. Not lived in his mother’s basement 8 years ago, when I dabbled in that sort of silliness. He’s STILL THERE!!!
But at least he has the purity of Robert O’Reilly’s soul to comfort him.
Hey, it’s a serious issue. And this comes from a Babylon 5 fan who some Trekkies will have nothing to do with. 🙂
In all seriousness, their loss. 🙂
You read Donna Andrews? You need to read her latest, We’ll Always Have Parrots. You’ll get a real kick out of it.