Infinitus post
Jul. 18th, 2010 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emmagrant01So, Infinitus is over. I'm hanging out in my hotel room in Orlando. BG is watching "Bob the Builder" on his little DVD player, hopefully about to be lulled to sleep by talking construction equipment. I've had some time to reflect on the last few days; aided by a morning of explaining the concept of slash to BG's nanny (who came along to hang out with him by the hotel pool while I did con stuff), and I'm going to try to write something coherent about it here.
This was my sixth Harry Potter con, and I can't help but wonder if it will be my last. First of all, I should say there was nothing really wrong with the con itself. I know a few individuals who have issues with certain aspects of the way the con was run, and all of us were dissatisfied by Universal Studios' decision to show us a half-hour long video to stall our entrance into the park on Friday night (not HPEF's fault, btw). It wasn't any of that that put me off.
Of all the cons I've been to, the one that I loved the most was Lumos. There was just such a wonderful sense of fandom camaraderie there: the timing was perfect, the summer before the last book was released; the hotel was a crazy fun place to be; and all areas of fandom -- fanart, fanfic, shippers, meta, academics, wrock, educators, cosplayers, podcasters -- all seemed to be fairly equally represented in the attendance and programming. There was so much excitement in the air, so much enthusiasm for where the fandom was going.
It's been a couple of years since I've been to con, and to be fair, I haven't really been involved in fandom in that time. So when I arrived on Thursday night and set out to find friends to hang out with, I was in for a shock. There were large numbers of young fans filling the conference area, all waiting in line for the wizard rock show. I mean, hundreds. They were sitting in groups, singing their favorite songs, talking about their favorite bands, and it was very clear that they were there for the wrock. (Disclaimer: I have no problem with wrock; I think it's an awesome part of the fandom -- it's just not my thing.)
I walked around for half an hour and saw no familiar faces, no familiar names on badges. Luckily,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mijan had called me earlier to arrange a meetup, but otherwise I don't think I would have found another slasher. We both felt like we were in a tiny minority, which was such a change from the diversity of the previous cons I've been to.
That night I studied the program for Friday, and there really wasn't much I was interested in attending. There was very little programming focused on fanfiction of any kind, and the only explicitly slashy one was the panel I was on! Formal programming is a function of who contributes proposals, and so this is clearly a sign that slashers (and fanfic writers and shippers in general) are no longer a presence at these cons.
One disgruntled slasher pointed out that most of the big events at this con were performances -- wrock, a musical, a film -- all of which she felt had a decidedly commercial feel to them. And again, there's nothing wrong with that, but the vast majority of attendees were there to see those events. The one wizard rock band I went to see (called "Slash Fiction") had their performance in the common room constantly interrupted by cheers from the line outside (waiting for the musical) and folks in the common room who were being loud. So the performances and their fans really dominated the con in a way I haven't seen before.
There was a general feeling among the slash crowd that we were being tucked back into the corners of the con. The slash panel was well attended, but we only got 50 minutes; when it ended, it was clear we could have gone another hour. The room we were put in was all the way down the hall and around the corner, as far as we could have been from the rest of the programming. The two-hour Snape discussion session was scheduled first thing in the morning after the Night of a Thousand Wizards event (which ended at 2:00 am), and the room was locked and there were no AV people around until five minutes after it was scheduled to start. I'm not going to claim that those were intentional slights because I'm pretty sure they weren't, but I can't deny that things like that leave a bad taste in your mouth, yanno?
It was the first time I've been at an HP con and felt like my interests were in the margins of the con. Again, I don't think that can be blamed on the organizers; I just think that the presence of fanfic writers and readers is not there any more. So that makes me wonder if I'll be going to the next one. I'm honestly not sure.
The best part, as always, was spending time with friends and fellow slashers. Several Snarry folks (led by Dementor Delta) had organized a Snarry Suite, full of booze and snacks and slashy Snarry goodness. It was open most of the time for people to hang around and talk Snarry, and we talked the last night about doing a general Slasher's Common Room in the future. Isn't it sad that the number of slashers at the con was small enough that we could imagine fitting them all in a suite?
At any rate, that got me thinking about going to the small slash-oriented cons again. I loved the HP ones when there was a huge slash contingent, but now that it's dwindled so much, it seems silly to spend so much money to just go and hang out with people. There are other ways to do that, you know?
That said, the main reason I went was to attend the Night of a Thousand Wizards event, and that was a lot of fun. The rides were fantastic, and and it was really fun to be there with a few hundred fellow HP fans, having it all to ourselves for a few short hours. Walking through the halls of Hogwarts surrounded by people who were squeeing at what was around every bend was pretty damn awesome. It was a fun night, and I was really glad I'd come just for that.
Overall, I had fun. I'm just not sure it's how I will have my fandom fun in the future. I'd love to hear others' perspectives on Infinitus!
Oh, and I now have a fannish FB, for those who are so inclined. You can find it via my email address, emmagrant01 at gmail. :-)
This was my sixth Harry Potter con, and I can't help but wonder if it will be my last. First of all, I should say there was nothing really wrong with the con itself. I know a few individuals who have issues with certain aspects of the way the con was run, and all of us were dissatisfied by Universal Studios' decision to show us a half-hour long video to stall our entrance into the park on Friday night (not HPEF's fault, btw). It wasn't any of that that put me off.
Of all the cons I've been to, the one that I loved the most was Lumos. There was just such a wonderful sense of fandom camaraderie there: the timing was perfect, the summer before the last book was released; the hotel was a crazy fun place to be; and all areas of fandom -- fanart, fanfic, shippers, meta, academics, wrock, educators, cosplayers, podcasters -- all seemed to be fairly equally represented in the attendance and programming. There was so much excitement in the air, so much enthusiasm for where the fandom was going.
It's been a couple of years since I've been to con, and to be fair, I haven't really been involved in fandom in that time. So when I arrived on Thursday night and set out to find friends to hang out with, I was in for a shock. There were large numbers of young fans filling the conference area, all waiting in line for the wizard rock show. I mean, hundreds. They were sitting in groups, singing their favorite songs, talking about their favorite bands, and it was very clear that they were there for the wrock. (Disclaimer: I have no problem with wrock; I think it's an awesome part of the fandom -- it's just not my thing.)
I walked around for half an hour and saw no familiar faces, no familiar names on badges. Luckily,
mijan had called me earlier to arrange a meetup, but otherwise I don't think I would have found another slasher. We both felt like we were in a tiny minority, which was such a change from the diversity of the previous cons I've been to.That night I studied the program for Friday, and there really wasn't much I was interested in attending. There was very little programming focused on fanfiction of any kind, and the only explicitly slashy one was the panel I was on! Formal programming is a function of who contributes proposals, and so this is clearly a sign that slashers (and fanfic writers and shippers in general) are no longer a presence at these cons.
One disgruntled slasher pointed out that most of the big events at this con were performances -- wrock, a musical, a film -- all of which she felt had a decidedly commercial feel to them. And again, there's nothing wrong with that, but the vast majority of attendees were there to see those events. The one wizard rock band I went to see (called "Slash Fiction") had their performance in the common room constantly interrupted by cheers from the line outside (waiting for the musical) and folks in the common room who were being loud. So the performances and their fans really dominated the con in a way I haven't seen before.
There was a general feeling among the slash crowd that we were being tucked back into the corners of the con. The slash panel was well attended, but we only got 50 minutes; when it ended, it was clear we could have gone another hour. The room we were put in was all the way down the hall and around the corner, as far as we could have been from the rest of the programming. The two-hour Snape discussion session was scheduled first thing in the morning after the Night of a Thousand Wizards event (which ended at 2:00 am), and the room was locked and there were no AV people around until five minutes after it was scheduled to start. I'm not going to claim that those were intentional slights because I'm pretty sure they weren't, but I can't deny that things like that leave a bad taste in your mouth, yanno?
It was the first time I've been at an HP con and felt like my interests were in the margins of the con. Again, I don't think that can be blamed on the organizers; I just think that the presence of fanfic writers and readers is not there any more. So that makes me wonder if I'll be going to the next one. I'm honestly not sure.
The best part, as always, was spending time with friends and fellow slashers. Several Snarry folks (led by Dementor Delta) had organized a Snarry Suite, full of booze and snacks and slashy Snarry goodness. It was open most of the time for people to hang around and talk Snarry, and we talked the last night about doing a general Slasher's Common Room in the future. Isn't it sad that the number of slashers at the con was small enough that we could imagine fitting them all in a suite?
At any rate, that got me thinking about going to the small slash-oriented cons again. I loved the HP ones when there was a huge slash contingent, but now that it's dwindled so much, it seems silly to spend so much money to just go and hang out with people. There are other ways to do that, you know?
That said, the main reason I went was to attend the Night of a Thousand Wizards event, and that was a lot of fun. The rides were fantastic, and and it was really fun to be there with a few hundred fellow HP fans, having it all to ourselves for a few short hours. Walking through the halls of Hogwarts surrounded by people who were squeeing at what was around every bend was pretty damn awesome. It was a fun night, and I was really glad I'd come just for that.
Overall, I had fun. I'm just not sure it's how I will have my fandom fun in the future. I'd love to hear others' perspectives on Infinitus!
Oh, and I now have a fannish FB, for those who are so inclined. You can find it via my email address, emmagrant01 at gmail. :-)
