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[ritaxis]

I haven't wanted to say anything about the "racefail" crap because it's crap and there's no way to address the crappiness of it without getting told that you're saying somethign that you're not.

But eventually I will have to discuss race and the rest, here, in my own terms. Not necessarily racefail -- I'm not a participant in any of the social circles where this has been playing out, so I may not have to engage that at all -- but because I have been reflecting on race, color, language, ethnicity, class and caste with both hands -- I have to: my job (my calling) demands it. I can't avoid it.


I no longer have much ambition to someday get to Wiscon, though. Not because of any particular event, but because it doesn't sound like the exciting intellectual place that it used to sound like. It frankly sounds dreary. And the people who are defending it the most sound the dreariest, though not the only dreary ones. Which is a loss for me, but I haven't even made it to BayCon since the nice fellow died, so the loss of the idea of Wiscon is probably not that huge.

Comments

[zanzjan.livejournal.com]

Huh. I seem to have missed any recent resurgence of racefail, or how that involves Wiscon. Since I was planning on going next year (if I can work out the transportation logistic) I'd be very sad if it's been broken. )-:

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Well, my wife and some others who went didn't find it badly broken for them. I've never been a Wiscon person myself.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I'll be interested to see. It's an issue I need to engage more with, and "racefail" cut off some of the main places I'd have expected to do so by making them too virulently unsafe. I expect that I will find some of the things you bring forward to be interesting and probably challenging.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

What you see online probably doesn't represent the situation on the ground, so to speak. I would love to be able to go back to Wiscon and I'd love to meet you there, and that in itself would be worth it.

I know what you mean and I am really saddened by what is happening, but I haven't lost faith, not even in the dreariest people.

[pameladean]

I didn't find Wiscon remotely dreary.

P.

[redbird]

This Wiscon felt neither dreary nor dangerous to me. The place where it's felt less intellectually exciting to me in the last few years is the increasing emphasis on the "craft and business of writing" track, which appeals to lots of current and aspiring professional writers, but has little for the happy reader. (I've missed two Wiscons in the past 15 years, one for a conflicting event and one for medical reasons, so I think I count as a regular, for better or worse.)

On the one hand, I feel I should note that Wiscon has at least a little programming that talks about class, which I gather is unusual (I'm not getting to many other cons the last few years). On the other, part of why it feels comfortable to me doesn't, as far as I know, apply directly to you: Wiscon is a place where I can happily introduce my girlfriend to lots of people I know, and count on friendly, welcoming reactions.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

However, I am a bit saddened by the fact that people who *do* find it uncomfortable are so blithely dismissed. I know it's not what you are doing; but I would really welcome more charity in fandom.

Yes... I can hear old fen howling in mirth now and waving old fanzines... but I can still hope, can't I?