Why We Need Fan GoHs
Sep. 30th, 2006 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I'm interested in Klingon and chess variants. Apparently so was Mike Ford. I didn't know this until I read the Wikipedia entry on him, but he invented the Klingon chess-like game klin zha, which I was given a copy of by Klingon costumers.
I know Mike Ford was in the category of Pro, but in the time since his death alerted me to his having existed, I have read relatively few descriptions of his paid writing achievements (which were considerable) from his legion of personal friends and acquaintances. It's as if it were incidental to the force of nature that was John Milo "Mike" Ford. What he did at science fiction conventions and on internet forums immortalized him.
Despite the fact that he was Pro, not Fan, his death has provided me with another reason that the practice at ConFusion and ConClave of having a Fan Guest Of Honor is a good thing, so that more of us can find out about beloved personalities-- not just works-- before it's too late.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-01 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 07:33 pm (UTC)If you see it as a "niche" GoH category of interest only to the subset of attendees who are interested in that niche -- the Filk GoH is a clear example of this, but arguments can be made for the others too -- then it's primarily serving the subset of people who are really into fandom as fandom, and it's reasonable to pick people they'll have met at other cons but who are unknown outside of that subcommunity within fandom. And who nobody outside of that subcommunity will care about.
(Side note: believe me, the "fandom qua fandom" or "SMOF" community really is a fringe interest in the same sense that filking or gaming is -- its events may be a core motivation for its members to attend cons, but non-members couldn't care less, or at most dip into it occasionally like I'll occasionally attend a filk concert.)
John M. Ford was a professional, who was known not only to SF readers for his bizarrely eclectic but always outstanding fiction, and to the SMOF types for being a very cool guy, but also to members of the gaming community for some brilliantly imaginative work he did in that field. He would have been a perfect fan GoH under either theory, and would have been a broad draw.
That isn't necessarily true for some of the other names being mentioned. Which is okay, but it also sends a signal about what the Fan GoH is for.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 07:48 pm (UTC)A Fan GoH should be someone who will make the convention more fun and/or more interesting than it might be otherwise. There are plenty of fans out there who can do that without having any other "cred" other than being fans.
The impact of (all but a few very big name) GoHs on convention attendance is very, very minimal. For the most part, people don't come to a convention because they want to see the GoH.
The only currency of fandom is egoboo. Rewarding someone (local or faraway) for being a good fan who contributes to making fandom fun, is payS into that whole system.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 08:00 pm (UTC)And as I said, there's nothing wrong with that. It's arguably true of any of the other GoHs, including even the Author/Pro GoH, though you'd hope that the author/pro would have broader name recognition even among people who attend primarily for the fandom/filk/gaming/art/whatever.
Klin Zha and John Ford
Date: 2007-11-08 03:15 am (UTC)Respectfully,
Norman Schwartz
dragonstoo@charter.net