15 November 1998: Windycon 25

Sunday, 15 November 1998:

Windycon 25

Unfortunately, I think Windycon will probably be off my list of conventions I attend next year. I had an okay time, but that was all: okay. I don't think it's quite enough to keep me coming back.

For one thing, there has been little-to-no programming on Friday this year and last. So I'm supposed to hit the dealer's room, maybe watch a movie, go to dinner... and then what? Make me wonder why I bother to go down on Friday at all, since I can easily do most of that on Saturday or Sunday.

Well, in fact what I did once I got down there and scoped things out, was to drive to another point in the Chicago area and have dinner with a fellow on-line journaller, the pseudonymous Ms. Rothschild. After managing (barely) to escape the photosphere of Chicago rush hour traffic, I managed to get to her place only half an hour late. :-)

Despite her protestations to the contrary, Dorothy seemed perfectly nice, albeit perhaps a little nervous at meeting someone from the net. I commented to her in e-mail recently that she seems to basically be waiting for the other shoe to drop, to get wherever she's going in life, and I got that feeling in person too. Although I still don't think she comes off as depressed!

But we had a nice dinner and I got to pet her cat (and her roommate's hard-to-charm cat; I am the cat god, worship me). So it was fun.

(I feel like I always have a mental block when I try to describe meeting someone for the first time. Bizarre.)

After I got back, I went to the Windycon film room - which is one of the better points of the convention inasmuch as they show actual 35-mm films and not just videotapes - to see the film The X-Files: Fight the Future. Although it was entertaining enough, it reminded me why I don't watch the TV series anymore: The degree of paranoia gets silly after a while, the motivations of the people working in the shadows on dark alien-related projects are almost impossible to fathom, and, ultimately, we never really learn anything. Any resolution we encounter is ephemeral and unsatisfying. In short, it never goes anywhere.

The film involves the discovery of an alien viral culture which infects humans and cannibalizes their bodies to gestate new aliens. The shadow government seems to be helping them do this, although why is not at all clear. There seems to be a shadow government within the shadow government, involving the Cancer Man, and a wacky delivery system for the virus. If you think about the plot on more than a superficial level, it makes no sense; it's just supposed to be weird. I want more.

The film did have some good dialogue, though, especially as Mulder and Scully are chasing their various targets around northern Texas. But I don't have a whole lot more to say for it.

The Windycon dealer's room has become quite stale in the last couple of years. There are the usual three or four dealers selling brand new books, so you can always pick up the latest releases, but the supply of used book dealers is in short supply. There was only one there who seemed to be selling choice stuff - some nice old hardcovers; the other used books all seemed to be people selling remainders or the chaff from their own collections. I didn't find anything used that came anywhere near what I'd like to pick up.

Not much in the way of comics dealers, either. There was one guy who had some Star Wars and Elfquest comics, neither of which interest me. He told me he lived in the area, and if I gave him a want list he could go home and see what he had and bring them in for me. But I'm never comfortable with this, and afterward I wondered why. I think the reason is that most of the comics I'm looking for aren't that hard to find; I know I'll find 'em eventually. What I want to do is to browse the room and see what people have - books, comics, CDs, etc. - and get a good idea for all their prices, and then I'll weigh that against how much money I want to spend that weekend, and pick up the stuff I want most.

So if I give him a list of stuff, and he comes back with a few dozen items, it's entirely possible I might go through it and say, "nah, I don't want any of this stuff right now." Maybe I can buy it cheaper elsewhere (sooner or later), or maybe I'll just find other stuff I want more. But having him make a special run for stuff that I may or may not buy right now is not what I want to do.

Besides, I thought he was a little pushy in trying to get my to cough up a list of stuff, and that made me uncomfortable.

I did buy some things. I bought a couple of recent collections of Clark Ashton Smith's short stories (Smith was a contemporary of H. P. Lovecraft, who I think was actually a better writer, although Lovecraft was a better idea man). I picked up a recent reissue of H. Beam Piper's three "Fuzzy" novels; Piper was the guy who really got me into SF, and my old paperbacks were getting pretty dog-eared. And I picked up Tim Powers' Earthquake Weather (recently issued in paperback) and Robert J. Sawyer's Frameshift (for an upcoming book discussion). A pretty light haul, actually.

Saturday I got a couple of autographs. Stephen Leigh autographed my copy of Dark Water's Embrace, which I think is the best book I've read this year. Leigh and I had exchanged e-mail a couple of times when he found my Web page and thanked me for the positive review, and he recognized my name when I got the autograph. He seemed like a nice, soft-spoken gentleman. Unfortunately, I was struck with my bout of nervousness-in-front-of-a-pro when I met him, so I didn't stick around to chat, and perhaps I should have since there wasn't a line just then.

Leigh told me his next book is due out in March, and I'll be looking forward to it. Vernor Vinge's next novel is also due out around then, so it should be a good winter for reading!

I also got Phil Foglio to autograph my copy of the first, out-of-print Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire collection. I've enjoyed Phil's work since I was a teenager, and I own almost everything I've been able to get my hands on by him. He says he has a "mystery comic book project" in the works; I've heard rumors that it might be (at last) a continuation of the old, abortive D'arc Tangent comic, which would be cool.

Other than that: I went to some panels (which were good but there were fewer than I'd have liked), and hit the art show (which was pretty weak this year), and hung out with some friends, although it seems like there are relatively few people who attend Windycon whom I really know. A number of acquaintances, yes, but few who are likely to become more than acquaintances.

So, it was a pretty lukewarm con, and short of a Guest of Honor next year who I don't want to miss, I will probably give Windycon a miss next year. Maybe I'll try to go to the Chicago Comicon (it's been a decade since I've been to a comic book convention), or maybe I'll fly out to Readercon, which I think I'd enjoy. I dunno.

Meanwhile, tomorrow it's back to the grind...

Michael Rawdon (Contact)