Commentary
Still a strange land, but strangers no more
by Haddayr Copley-Woods
Haddayr Copley-Woods is an author and blogger in Minneapolis, as well as a source in the Public Insight Network for MPR News.
I was recently on an elevator with two Enterprise crewmembers, Indiana Jones, an anime character I couldn't identify, and Legolas.
A wide-eyed Delta pilot stepped onto the elevator and asked me — the only person with round ears, wearing street clothes — "What is this?"
"It's a sci-fi/fantasy convention," I said.
He stared.
"I spend my time," he said, "doing real things."
It was not just his rudeness that left me gawping after his exit. It was my realization that somehow, over the years, I had come to see this motley crew of characters as mine. This was my family he was sneering at! I felt protective.
But all I could manage in their defense came after he got off the elevator. "Real?" I said to the closed door. "Like watching organized sports?"
Everyone laughed.
Indiana Jones said, "I wasn't sure that you were one of us. But the perfect comeback when it's too late? You are definitely a nerd."
I beamed at him.
Many people called me a nerd back in seventh grade, when I played Dungeons and Dragons and got picked last in gym. Now the word feels like an embrace.
It took me a while to get there. Somehow I missed out on conventions. Instead I wandered the cold face of the earth alone, being the weird girl at work, always the odd man out, bewildered.
Then I sold my first short story to a small fantasy magazine in 2003. The editor told me I should "come to a con" — by which he meant a gathering like the CONvergence event last week in Bloomington.
"Isn't a 'con' where people wear Spock ears?" I asked.
He replied, "Trust me."
I did, and made some of the best friends of my life: local people. Friends from far away who stayed true over long distances. Friends who remember what it was like to be outcasts in high school and then to stumble upon an entire hotel of people happy to see them.
You haven't lived until you have earnestly dissected the anthropological approaches of Le Guin vs. Arnason with Black Canary over a drink served by a storm trooper.
There is something about nerds and our glorious, enthusiastic participation in what we enjoy that I cannot resist.
Do you still secretly read your old comic books? Do you spend time thinking about Joss Whedon's take on female sexuality?
Then you should come to a con.
Sometimes, during a deeply intellectual panel on the work of Lloyd Alexander, you might have to raise your voice to compete with the sounds of a boisterous Klingon ritual going on in the courtyard below. But if you're a misfit, it will be worth it. You'll finally be home.
Comments (16)
Thanks, MPR. We love you too.
Yes, we do real things, too. We are the scientists, tech support, fire fighters, teachers, librarians, delivery drivers and MPR supporters. And that's just some of the people I met at CONvergence.
Back when I worked at MPR, I got my boss interested in science fiction and fantasy conventions. MPR laid us all off almost twenty years ago, and I rarely see my other old co-workers, but I saw my old boss last weekend at CONvergence, and we still had a hug and a smile for each other. Jobs come and go, but books and art and films and intellectual friendships with a sense of fun will endure.
Too many thoughts to summarize here, but yay! To understand what SF/F fandom is, you have to have been an Outsider. You also have to have what older fans called a "sensawonda" a sense of wonder, an appreciation for the odd, magical and absurd. I think it's highly ironic that Minnesota, a state that treasures conformity while "celebrating diversity" i.e., to be strange in Minnesota is very suspicious, is home to one of the largest fan run conventions, CONvergence. As one of the rowdy Klingons, I raise my mug of Bloodwine and wish you a hardy Qapla'!
It's a fun escape. Great friendships with people from all over the world and next door are made through fandom. It's also a big enough world that it sometimes intersects with the day to day world. I had the wonderful experience this weekend of walking down the hall and bumping into one of my clients dressed up in costume. There was the momentary beat of awkwardness, and both of us realizing that there is more to people than just the work facade.
I prefer "geek" to "nerd," personally... But that's just because I'm a word/etymology geek.
In any case, my personal definition of "geek" is this: Someone who cares more about the interests she or he is passionate about (whether that's math, or MMORPGs, or computers, or music or ...) than about whether or not people make fun of them for their interests.
So, yeah. They're definitely the people I'd prefer to hang out with.
If you want to see real creativity in not just the professionals, but in the real public - attend a SF/Fantasy/Anime convention. Here is imagination run wild, gone amok, and having a great time. No idea or question is too outlandish to consider, be it flying cars fueled by solar power to the debate that angels could really be aliens. Nothing is off limits to the unbridled imagination. Acceptance is the norm, whether it's your sexuality, your religion (or lack of it), or your political views. All are embraced with empathy. Your physical appearance counts less than your intellectual openness, and willingness to accept others, just as they are. Those in 'regular' society who are marginalized because of their social lacking (of money, 'beauty', political or economic power) can find common ground, and kindred spirits here, the kind who can believe 20 impossible things before breakfast kind of people. The friends you make here will last you for a life time, because those friendships are rooted in imagination, which knows no bounds.
I wish Haddayr hadn't turned to the old "sports are dumb" retort. I'm a geek *and* a sports fan. They're not mutually exclusive.
Conni C, I didn't read it as a "sports are dumb" retort... for me, the question has always been why "mainstream" society doesn't ridicule sports fans for wearing make-up and costumes, traveling long distances, and spending tons of money to celebrate their hobby, but is quick to ridicule SF/fantasy fans for exactly the same sorts of behaviors (all of which is a lot cram into a brief elevator encounter!). But you're quite right, a person can be as much of a sports "geek" as a science or TV or film or comics geek.... and there's no rule limiting a person to only one fandom!
Connie: Marguerite is right; I was pointing out that these two things are very similar but no one seems to find watching organized sports odd. I myself am a member of Red Sox Nation and I am completely obsessed with Roller Derby.
That's true; mainstream people don't mock sports fans for doing the things they do, which can get kind of obsessive.
On the flip side, though, geeks *do* mock sports fans because sports are dumb/jocks are dumb/jocks made fun of me in high school. It's a common attitude that frustrates me a lot.
I wonder how many people in the elevator took it to mean that watching organized sports is stupid, rather than to mean that it isn't any more or less stupid than putting on Spock ears.
It's pretty clear that I'm a fan, too, when I recognize more than half of the people who've left comments on this article already. What was once a niche interest has grown to take over popular culture - that Delta pilot must not get out very much from his cockpit.
Real things like write the computer programs that calculate and print your paycheck, flyboy!
Once an egotistical man-child fighter jock, always an egotistical man-child fighter jock.
Why should you come to a Con? I personally know at least half the folks posting above this. Through Con. That's why. Thanx for the great article, Ms. Copley-Woods:)
My father was a United Pilot for 33 years. For many years he would ask me if I was still attending "Weird Cons". A few years ago after asking if I was still attending his response was "Those Klingons aren't half bad". Seems my dad had spent an evening at a hotel during a cenvention and had discovered that the folks in the costumes were interesting people that knew about science, world politics, and differing cultures.
Thanks dad - glad you finally see what I saw years ago. These people are interesting. yes they get caught up in their geekdom - but they are so much more then just that.
When I first moved to Minneapolis, back in the early 90s, it seemed nigh unto impossible to find friends. Until I heard about Minicon, a local Con held in that same hotel. Being a nerd, it seemed smart to go to where other nerds would congregate ya know? Went to it, did some volunteering and met many of the fine folks commenting here and so many more. Continued volunteering for local Cons (specifically CONvergence and Minicon now and then) and now my fellow congoers and volunteers are also my best friends, my dearest family. Thanks for writing this!
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