Here I am, back from Supanova (Brisbane and Melbourne). To say it was heaps of fun and totally exhausting would be accurate. Here's a picture of Marianne and I working hard at the coal-face (bookshop).
Here's someone climbing out of the Delorean from Back to the Future. I was chatting with someone today about the number of people who came to Supanova (26,000 in Brisbane, not sure of Melbourne). When I went to Melbourne way back when I was a teenager, I met the SF fans and found people who talked about the kinds of things that interested me. But we were a minority that the mainstream didn't understand and actively mocked.When Starwars came out in the late 1970s and it was so incredibly popular, I can remember SF fans saying Soon we won't be marginalised any more. We'll be mainstream. It took a bit longer and a lot more successful movies and TV shows, but the day has come.
The basic concepts of SF stories are understood by the average person and the staple devices of SF are everyday accessories. A communicator that takes pictures, connects with a knowledge base and reminds you of where you should be? Sure!
It's funny to sit at the bookshop stall and see Doctor Who walk by, Manga characters, computer game characters and more, and know that many caught public transport to get there. I'm sure there are similar events in the US and the UK.
I'd like to raise a glass of cyber champagne to all those fans who kept the dreams of SF and F alive for so many years when they were marginalised. What are your memories of discovering the genre and getting involved in fandom? And where do you see our genre going from here?
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