Worldcon Braintrust
19. Aug, 2009 
5 Comments
Someone on TLTSNBN has posted links to photos and video of the CHAIRS OF WORLDCONS PAST! (imagine that said in one of those resonating, echo chamber voice overs).
These are the folks who volunteered (VOLUNTEERED!) to be fannish whipping persons and scapegoats for an initial two or three year period and then, as the case may be, possibly for the rest of their lives.
They are also the folks who’s vision, leadership, perseverence and special brand of madness (idiocy?) have helped Worldcon become what it is today.
As a Worldcon chair pro tempore myself (as was every other member of the 1977 Worldcon staff – ask someone like Gary Farber for an explanation of that one) I avoid the lifelong stigma while having a pretty darned good idea of what actually being a piece of Worldcon furniture is like.? You get sat on. A lot.
You will note the preponderance of gray, white and no hair amongst the members in the group photo.? That is not ONLY a relic of age, my friends.
Check out these links:
~~~
Abe Books has put out a top ten list of trilogies.? I consider this list of be highly manipulated.? The explanation contains more ‘why we didn’t includes’ than includes – and even an email address to complain about the absence of LOTR!
~~~
Interview with Nick Mamata of Viz Media/Haikasoru later today.
(The Foundation books aren’t a trilogy, either, even before Isaac started writing more, for example. They’re several independent stories, previously published in Astounding, shoved together in between three sets of book covers.)
Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown books, or Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars books: those are trilogies.
Also, for the record, a trilogy is not one long story split into three parts for economic reasons. A trilogy is made of three separate works, which can be read either independently, or as a larger work.
If you can’t read each book independently, and have it work as a novel, then it isn’t a trilogy; it’s just a single book that’s been split up for publishing convenience.
Again, a lot of people are confused by careless use of the term.
“…and even an email address to complain about the absence of LOTR!”
LOTR is not, in fact, a trilogy, in any meaningful sense other than that was a commercial decision as to how to most profitably publish it. It’s, if you read it, you’ll notice, six books, clearly labeled.
If it’s not six books, it’s one book.
But “trilogy” is just historical accident of publishing economics, and has absolutely nothing to do with either author intent, or structure of the stories.
It’s entirely valid to not put it on a list of trilogies, simply because most people don’t pay any attention to the facts, and notice only superficial details without knowing the reasons why things are the way they are.
A true trilogy is structurally intended to be a trilogy. LOTR is not. That was just an economic decision by Allen & Unwin.
Inside joke that maybe has gone too long in the not-telling.
When Don took to his hotel suite and could not be found, the joke going around was that ‘everyone was now chairman’ of the con.
“As a Worldcon chair pro tempore myself (as was every other member of the 1977 Worldcon staff – ask someone like Gary Farber for an explanation of that one)”
Um, er, I’m actually not quite sure what you mean by that. There was certainly a great deal of improvising onsite at the SunCon — more than at some Worldcons, and less than at some others — and a significant number of cases of people taking on some duties, or additional duties (“hats”) impromptu, but nothing that I can recall that can be quite described as temporarily taking over from Don Lundry (or Grace) and acting as chair instead of him/them.
Perhaps you can jog my memory.
(Feel free to link to my blog whenever you mention me, btw.
(I’ve done a bunch of fannish/skiffyish posts in recent days, as I do from time to time.)
For what it’s worth, I’m immortalized — until such time as they change the list again — in this footnote for the following year. But I’m not really clear what you mean about 1977.