Are you a con-person?

[pitchblackrose]

In the light of all the Lumos squee on my flist, and all the polls asking which cons people are going to attend next year, I am curious to see how many people on my flist actually like conventions

Comments

[gmth]

But then again, maybe fandomers like conventions precisely because they don't usually meet one another, unlike the golfers.

Yes, but also, fandom is not embraced by the wider world like golf, photograpy, or poetry is. You tell people you're a golfer, photographer, or poet and you're unlikely to get laughed at or secretly (or not so secretly) considered weird or perhaps even criminal. It's much harder to "come out" as a person in fandom to friends and family members, especially if you write or draw hardcore porn, so it's much more difficult to make the same kinds of connections with people. Cons allow you to be surrounded by people who get it, whatever "it" you happen to be in to. That's a rare thing, in my experience.

...which is rather interesting in a community of people that generally pursue their odd little hobby by themselves in front of a computer screen.After a while, fandom gets to be a bit like sex, don't you think? It's fun to do it on your own, but once in a while you want to do it with other people, too

[pitchblackrose]

Yes, as I say, it completely makes sense to me that fandomers would like this but the mere idea of an organized schedule that one follows with loads of strangers completely freaks me out! :p

I picture conventions a bit like summer camp - only with porn.

And the t00bs... Well, I know the t00bs *pets them*. They don't scare me like conventions do :)

After a while, fandom gets to be a bit like sex, don't you think? It's fun to do it on your own, but once in a while you want to do it with other people, too. ;-)

Point - but I find it seriously funny that it was only a few hours ago that I was posting about my new and shiny vibrator ;) In many ways, I function best on my own! :p

[emmagrant01]

Sci fi and fantasy fans seem particularly prone to cons, possibly because it just isn't acceptable for them to do their thing in public. Rabid sports fans have places to go where they can wear their fan costumes, paint their faces, and generally act crazy, but for some reason, those of us who are just as obsessive and crazy about a book series are considered the weird ones.

I've always thought that was a bit sexist, personally. After all, the vast majority of big sports fans are men, and the majority of sci fi/fantasy fans are women and... well, geeks. Why is it so acceptable to paint your car and decorate your home in the colors and paraphenalia of your favorite football team, but if you do that for Star Trek, you're a freak?

Anyway, I like cons for a variety of reasons. There are always people who are far more weird than you, and that can be oddly refreshing. ;-)

[pitchblackrose]

There are always people who are far more weird than you, and that can be oddly refreshing. ;-)

LOL

And yes, you are of course very right about the sport analogy. Maybe that's one of the reasons the idea of conventions really doesn't do anything for me - fandom is such a big part of my RL here in London that I don't need to go and get my "fix" of talking about buttsex at a con, since I can just tottle off out to Snape's pub any time I feel the urge.

But mostly it's just that I am very anti-social in general :)

[ptyx]

Well, I'd like to go to meet people, and I feel sad because I can't. So, I would like to go, but just because I can't ;-)

[pitchblackrose]

Haha, I remember vaguely wanting to go, back when I couldn't, but now that I actually can, the very idea makes my blood run cold :p

[froda_baggins]

I have not ever attended a fandom-related convention as such, though I have promised myself that at some point I definitely will. (It probably won't be specifically Harry Potter, probably a more generalized fantasy/sci-fi con.)

I have, however, attended a) thespian conventions and b) in the spring I attended an academic convention, and have thoroughly loved both experiences, possibly because of the same ideas as commenters have talked about above. Academics and thespians are considered generally to be outside the "mainstream" so the only way to really connect with others of like minds is within the context of a convention. (I love the sports analogy too!)

But I can see how they wouldn't be appealing at all to someone who has social anxiety.

[pitchblackrose]

A world view where academics are outside the mainstream seems very amusing to me :)

[froda_baggins]

A world where academia is in the mainstream would be awesome. It would certainly make explaining my studies to my family a lot easier!

[pitchblackrose]

Well, the t00bs are more of this one-on-one kind of interaction you speak of. I had also met Sam just by herself some months before I met the rest of the t00bs, so it wasn't quite as frightening facing them for the first time :) But a huge group where everyone is more social and louder than I am? No way! Even if I had a fandom friend with me, I'd be terrified that they would mingle with everything that moved, dump me because I suck and I'd be all alone :p

I felt really awkward at the GoF as well, and I even had my husband with me to cling to :) Then we went back to the party afterward, which was much less of a Formal Fandom Event and that was much better.

So, I think that we have very similar feelings on the issue :)