12 August 2008

WorldCon subjective wrapup

I've finally recovered somewhat from WorldCon and am feeling human again. :)

I've been trying to be positive in my daily posts, but to be honest, I was underwhelmed by WorldCon. It was just too big. The focus was all on the super-stars, such as Lois McMaster Bujold, Connie Willis and George RR Martin. If you wanted to go worship at their feet, it was a perfect opportunity, but that's not my scene. We were surrounded by other interesting authors, but there was no bio information about anyone--so how did you know? It was basically chaos.

My other main problem was the level of scientific expertise on the science panels was surprisingly low. I went to several where some of the panel "experts" knew virtually nothing about the scientific topic in question. At a world-class event, this type of thing should not be happening. To be clear, there were a few scientists, but they were outnumbered. :(

I could complain more but that wouldn't accomplish anything. I'm glad I went once to see what's what. And I found out about "siff-wah". :) Personally, I think regional Cons are much better for fans and authors/artists/media folk. See you at MileHiCon in October!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read the same thing on Nick Mamatas' blog (it may have been Jed Hartman's or Ellen Datlow's). Whoever it was, he/she indicated that it was really spread out and it was almost impossible to find people. Nick also had an interesting post about people singing in the elevator. :)

I still wish I was there!

David E. Hughes said...

I was impressed with the scientific expertise of Geoffrey Landis. I wish Lesley could have been there for his presentation or kaffeeklatsh.

ssas said...

It was spread out, but fun to see all the name tags bouncing around on 16th street mall, right in our own stomping grounds.