My First WisCon

[oyceter]

This was my first WisCon and my second con in general.

Madison, WI

(prepare to throw eggs)

I was rather dubious about going to Madison, which was helped by people asking me where I was going and raising an eyebrow when I said, "Wisconsin." A large part of this is my nidginess about the Midwest; I expect to feel very Asian and very foreign.

I did feel very Asian and very foreign on the shuttle ride to the hotel. The landscape was green and leafy, the houses were of wood or brick, and everything looked very Norman Rockwell.

But then, after people showed me around State St. a little, I fell immediately in love with Madison. I love that it has East African, Nepalese, Mexican and Indian restaurants in the space of four blocks. I love the farmers' market. I love A Room of One's Own, the indie feminist bookstore that I went to a few hours before my flight. I don't know if I get the impression that the town is liberal and multi-cultural because WisCon landed there or what, but I loved it. Granted, it wasn't that multi-cultural in terms of people of other races.

I keep talking about the feel of cities, and Madison feels fun and intimate but not "traditionally American," whatever that means. I would move there, except for the whole snow thing.

coffeeandink laughed when I was surprised by the greenery.

I'm from California. Things aren't supposed to be that green unless it's winter.

Race and ethnicity

I counted about 15 Asians (around 2 Southeast Asians and 13 East Asians) and about 6 black people. I was pleasantly surprised, given my experience at Norwescon, in which I was one of maybe three Asians. All the same, that's about 2% minorities at the con, which I found somewhat ironic, especially when the first Carl Brandon awards were given out.

I kept apologizing to everyone when I upped the Asian or the black count. I do feel bad counting, but on the other hand, I felt so very, very Asian when I was people-watching while registering that each additional minority spotted was a relief.

I think I met nearly all the Asians at the con.

Gender

Given that I've only been at one other con before, this is not a good comparison by any means.

WisCon felt much more female than Norwescon, by far.

Obviously, this is partly because it is a feminist con.

But I still like it, and it made me feel safe and comfortable.

Common ground (lack of)

I felt incredibly uneducated during the panels. I haven't read Joanna Russ or James Tiptree, Jr. I haven't read most of the things that the previous Guests of Honor have written, including but not limited to Samuel R. Delaney, Carol Emshillwer, Suzy McKee Charnas, Pamela Sargent, and etc. I was extremely embarrassed and felt rather unqualified to be there.

I also felt rather out of place during the parties; it seems as though half the people at the con were writers or aspiring writers, or people in the publishing business. I am not a writer, nor am I an aspiring writer, nor am I in the publishing business. I contemplated it once, but I decided it wasn't actually my life's dream.

Fans and pros

The line between fans and pros is thinner than I had thought. I do realize that authors aren't people that have descended from the sky, but on the other hand, I am still nervous when approaching people who've been published.

My knees were shaking when I met Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld, and I was very scared that everyone could see them shaking, given how short my skirt was.

I never really thought of SF/Fantasy as a fandom prior to this; my definition of "fandom" has usually been contained to media fandom and encompasses episode analysis, fan fiction and fanvids. But it is, and it's a small community.

Fooding

Fooding at the con was excellent. I had Nepalese and East African and Indian and a ton of ice cream. The Nepalese was somewhat like Chinese food (the bread-y skin of the momocha) and vaguely Indian with regard the the spices. The East African was vaguely Ethiopian, though jinian and I got a spicy lentil stew type thing and peanut chicken stew, both of which were delicious. It was served on injera. And we also had fried plantains, which just rock. I also had fresh bread, fresh scones and homemade preserves thanks to aforementioned farmers' market.

The only thing I missed was fruit.

Social life

I was actually social with people, albeit with much nervousness. I generally clung to coffeeandink, yhlee, rushthatspeaks, and heresluck, though I met a ton of LJ people. Despite knowing that people have my journal friended, I was perpetually surprised when people mentioned that they actually read the thing.

"Adjust," said heresluck. I attempted to, but probably never quite lost the deer-in-headlights look as I desperately tried to recall if I had written anything very dumb in the past few weeks.

I identified bluepencil by her icon from across the room.

This is probably my own paranoia and insecurity speaking, but there were definitely times when I felt like everyone knew everyone else and that I was the sole outsider, gasp!

This was, of course, quite silly, and everyone was extremely nice and approachable. And I even randomly talked to people on the shuttle on the way to the airport on Monday!

Organization

The con was beautifully organized, with the programmers realizing that people would like breaks between the panels and breaks for food. At times, the panels drifted off topic, and there were some that I was extremely frustrated by, but I enjoyed the programming much more than the programming at Norwescon.

This was probably a given, since nearly every single panel I went to discussed feminism (duh), but also issues of race, ethnicity, and class.

Comments

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

Despite having been at a con of my own all weekend, I'm more than a little envious of the WisCon experience. It sounds like a really good time. ^_^

[oyceter]

It was awesome!

[seajules]

Hmm, I think I need to try to be there next year.

[oyceter]

Yes! Yes! You do!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

As I said to the two Jennifers, I loved hearing about experiences at a first WisCon. It's like you're telling me about a friend of mine whom you've just met.

As far as diversity goes, there were also some biracial people (one of whom I know, and one at least in the Carl Brandon Society), and a group of Native Americans.

[oyceter]

Thanks for the note on the biracial people!

And, oh, I loved WisCon, even though the first hour or so was scary because I couldn't find people. I'm so excited for next year's already!

[littlebutfierce]

I do the POC-counting too!

And re: biracial people--yeah. Am dead curious if you saw me & pinged me as Asian or not (I don't expect you to remember all the half/Asian folks you saw, but on the off chance: I'm on the right, looking silly).

Also I thought there were more Asian folks than I'd seen @ previous WisCons (this was my 3rd)--I think in part because of the Japanese folks there who were organizing their Tiptree award (or whatever they're going to call it--brain fuzzy).

[oyceter]

Oh, I didn't count you, I'm sorry! I was having a really hard time by the second day, because then everyone changed clothes and I totally lost track.

I did get to eat with all the Japanese folk who were organizing their Tiptree, it was quite nifty! They talked about Joanna Russ and how her essays have influenced their views on yaoi, and other really cool things that I need to blog about once I stop talking about cultural appropriation for a bit.

[littlebutfierce]

Hahahaha, no worries. I often have trouble when I'm doing the POC-counting w/mixed race folks myself (& sometimes not even "mixed race" per se--I'm part of a group for queer Asians here in NYC & we try & 'recruit' folks w/flyers during the annual Dyke March, & a lot of the time I'm not sure if someone is Latino or Asian [most likely Filipino]. Ha).

Ooh, I'll be sure to look for your post re: what the Japanese group is up to. Sounds interesting!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I still don't think you should apologize for counting ethnicities. It is an important political act.

oracne is right about less visible minorities (the woman who identified herself as Native American at the Cultural Appropriation panel, for example, "looked" white), but I can't see the number going above 3 or 4% of the con.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I think it goes to about 4% of the con.

I'm going to dig up Delany's autobiography, because I want to know more about minority representation and the perceptions thereof and all that fun stuff.

[(Anonymous)]

Black folks at WisCon: Nisi Shawl, Andrea Hairston, Ian Hagleman, Nalo Hopkinson, Samuel R. Delany, Ama Patterson, Sheree Thomas, Nalo's friend Carol, Candra Gill, Tempest, and I just know I'm forgetting someone. That's pushing us up to almost 2.5 per cent!

[oyceter]

WHOO!

Thank you for the count and the names, I knew I had not done it properly.

[natlyn.livejournal.com]

and me!

[oyceter]

Yes, and you!

[applewoman.livejournal.com]

It was great to meet you -- and really kind of you to come up and say hello to me while I was stumbling about. I was trying to figure out if I knew anyone, but the LJ names were very small, and I felt as if I was peering at everyone's chests all night. I'm glad my icon was so recognizable!

And I hear your voice in my head now when I read your journal entries, which is quite cool. Adds another dimension to things.

I hope you plan to come back to Wiscon again. This was my third one, and it feels like a new and different experience every year.

[oyceter]

It was very lovely meeting you as well! I'm glad I spotted your icon! (it reminds me of a seagull all the time, even though I know it's a book)

I love meeting people in RL and suddenly being able to hear them in their LJs.

I am definitely going to back to WisCon! I had so much fun!

[natlyn.livejournal.com]

What you say about expecting to feel very Asian and foreign made me realize that I didn't give conscious thought to expecting to feel very black. I'm not sure whether that means, having attended sf and media cons for years, I now consider sf/fantasy fandom my people and therefore, I don't need to concern myself with worrying about issues of otherness or whether I've reached a point of realizing I'm never going to "fit in" anywhere given my interests. Hmm. I think I've decided it's a good thing--mainly because it frees my mind to deal with other things.

I also felt rather out of place during the parties; it seems as though half the people at the con were writers or aspiring writers, or people in the publishing business.

Me too. Even though the line between pro and fan was thin, I sometimes felt too unworthy to talk to a pro. Alternatively I was sometimes annoyed that I was being ignored in favor of a pro.

I never really thought of SF/Fantasy as a fandom prior to this

That's so odd to me because I came into media fandom through sf/fantasy first. It took me awhile to grasp that not everyone did it that way--and even longer to realize that not everyone came into media fandom through the show or movie.

Despite knowing that people have my journal friended, I was perpetually surprised when people mentioned that they actually read the thing. know! Isn't that wild? and great? but weird?

There were definitely times when I felt like everyone knew everyone else and that I was the sole outsider

Nope, you couldn't have been the sole outsider, because I felt like that too!

Anyway, it was nice meeting you. I hope to see you again sometime.

[oyceter]

What you say about expecting to feel very Asian and foreign made me realize that I didn't give conscious thought to expecting to feel very black.

Huh, interesting! Y'know, I think I almost expect to feel very Asian and foreign all the time because when I was in college, every time I mentioned that I felt Asian and foreign, everyone (ok, to be honest, all my white friends) told me, "You shouldn't feel foreign!"

It's odd that I started feeling even more foreign because of that. I mean, part of it was being from Taiwan, but a larger part was that I think people were subtly treating me as foreign even while they were saying I shouldn't feel that way! Mixed messages.

Um, I'm really sorry, this wasn't meant to be an entire "I was so oppressed!" thing, because that's silly.

That's so cool how you came in through media fandom via sf/fantasy! When I read it a lot back at home, there were only a few people I could talk about it to, so finding this fandom is incredible.

It was very nice meeting you!!