Corflatch II: it's official!

[calimac]

Corflatch was the name coined by Seattle fans when they held Corflu and Potlatch on adjacent weekends four years ago. Now it's happening in San Francisco, early next year. This has been in the works since, oh, February or so. But now the hotels have been found, confirmed, and signed on the dotted line, and the websites have the full info:

Corflu Titanium will be held on Feb. 25-27 at the Holiday Inn Civic Center, near the corner of Eighth and Market in San Francisco.

Potlatch 14 will be held the following weekend, March 4-6, around the corner at the Ramada Plaza.

You should all come - all of you with any interest in sf or fandom at all. They're small, unintimidating, and friendly. I'm working on both, but I wouldn't do so if I didn't think well of them.

Corflu is the fanzine fans' convention, and I've no idea where fanzine fans' reputation for being elitist and uninviting came from. Maybe they had that reaction towards people who belittled them, but just show any interest in fanzines at all - you don't even have to know anything about the subject - and you'll be welcomed. I'm thinking particularly of some locals who've done apazines in their time but probably don't think of themselves as fanzine fans, but who would fit in just fine (yes, smofbabe and liveavatar, I do mean you). And as for neos who attend Corflu, they usually walk away with huge piles of old fanzines they acquired at the sales tables and auctions for shockingly little money: ask Raven Pehr from this year's Corflu. Me, I originally got interested in fanzines when I found out how much fun they were to read.

And if you've ever been to the kind of large SF con whose programming made you wonder, "What happened to panels about, you know, books?", Potlatch is your convention. It's filled with people who are passionately interested in good science-fiction literature and who believe that the thing you do with enticing books after reading them is to talk about them with other readers. This year our "Book of Honor" (which means there'll be one panel focusing on it, and other panels might or might not also touch on it) is Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly, which should give us a chance to refute that silly article on Dick that supergee pointed to recently. Potlatch is also noted for its dealers' room that, while tiny, has more books than most large cons' enormous dealers' rooms.

I don't read much new sf any more, and I'm pretty much gafiated (the local word for retired) from active fanzine fandom, but I still go to these cons whenever I can - for Potlatch, I think it's been all of them - because I enjoy the company.

Actually, spikeiowa has been leaning on me to conjure up some LJ posts into a new issue of my fanzine in time for Corflu, and I may well do just that.

I'm also thinking up touristoid day trips to entice out-of-towners who are staying on between the cons. More on that later.

Comments

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

I've no idea where fanzine fans' reputation for being elitist and uninviting came from. Maybe they had that react[ion] towards people who belittled them, but just show any interest in fanzines at all - you don't even have to know anything about the subject - and you'll be welcomed.

Knowing about fanzines is obviously a prerequisite for being accepted by fanzine fans. But if you're wondering where the elitist and uninviting reputation came from, I suspect the answer might partially lie with the inescapable inside conversations and stories that inevitably occur at these conventions and, indeed, any large gathering of fanzine fans. It's a difficult situation, because on the one hand, people shouldn't have to keep explaining every reference that 90% of the people listening already know. OTOH, it can make newcomers feel rather excluded. Also, as with any gathering of geographically diverse friends, the established crowd is understandably interested in getting together with friends whom they don't see very often, so newcomers are sometimes left a bit on the sidelines to fend for themselves. I hasten to add that I don't think anyone does any of this on purpose, and most people are indeed welcoming after they see people around for a while or if they know them from print, but I think newcomers have to have some patience and push themselves forward a bit, which is difficult for the typical fanzine fan personality :->

I'm thinking particularly of some locals who've done apazines in their time but probably don't think of themselves as fanzine fans, but who would fit in just fine (yes, smofbabe and liveavatar, I do mean you.)

I've actually been to a few Corflus: 1992 in LA, 1994 in Crystal City, and 2000 in Seattle. They tend to occur a bit too close in time to Boskone for both my budget and my stamina.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

We put our Corflu the weekend after Boskone to help entice Brits who might cross the Atlantic for both if they're in close enough temporal proximity.

I certainly had my share of being ignored and squashed by socially inept BNFs when I was a neo. But I hung around because when the social interactions went well they were as sweet as any I knew. It was also obvious to me from the start that the door to acceptance in fandom was knowledge of its folkways and customs, and that the key to that door was to learn.

So I learned, rather than whining about how I was being excluded, which seems to be a more common tactic these days.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

We put our Corflu the weekend after Boskone to help entice Brits who might cross the Atlantic for both if they're in close enough temporal proximity.

I understand the reasoning, just explaining one of the reasons why I rarely attend. As a matter of fact, I'm hoping that if the Bring Bruce Bayside Fund makes lots of extra cash, the fund organizers might agree to use it to get Australian fanzine fan Bruce Gillespie to Boskone, an opportunity to meet fans who might not be able to travel to the West Coast.

So I learned, rather than whining about how I was being excluded, which seems to be a more common tactic these days.

Didn't mean to defend anyone who whines about this -- just was responding to your apparent puzzlement.

[spacecrab.livejournal.com]

It also happens in the other direction."

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I see that I have been invoked in the trunet discussion. My complaint is with the language. Luddites are morons who smash the machines. We need a word for people who choose not to use specific devices, but don't mind if others do so.

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

We need a word for people who choose not to use specific devices, but don't mind if others do so.

How about "selectivists"? I personally don't like to use the telephone. I use it at work because I have to, but I never answer the phone at home and only pick it up to use it about twice a month (to call my mother). Everyone I know (including my mother) has e-mail or can at least receive snail mail. Why should I call?