Why We Need Fan GoHs

[nemorathwald]

The countless blog entries and emails that seem to nominate the recently deceased Mike Ford for the fannish equivalent of sainthood show few signs of stopping. More tears are being shed even today. So I looked up his Wikipedia entry.

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.

Comments

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

Amen, brother!

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Excellent post. And this is why I've alwasys encouraged the "bring someone interesting from outside" model of Fan GoH rather than the "honor someone local who comes to every con anyway."

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on how you look at it. If you see the Fan GoH as being relevant to the con as a whole, you're likely to either bring in big-name local fans to honor their work, or bring in people who already have significant exposiure as editors, comic writers, etc. but don't fit into the other categories.

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.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

I'd heard raves about his "Ask Dr. Mike" schtick without ever knowing anything about his professional credentials or his gaming ones. That's recognizing him for an activity he does within fandom that has nothing to do with SMOFing. Boskone asking you-know-who to come and do Iron Author is in the same kind of category, although not a GoH position, obviously.

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.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

I probably shouldn't have used "SMOFfing" as a shorthand for the subgroup I'm talking about; the "fandom as fandom" label is more accurate. But my basic point stands. When you're talking about people who are known solely as fans, and they aren't there to do a specific entertainment thing like "Ask Dr. Mike" or "Iron Author," they're only of potential interest to a relatively small subgroup. (Hell, even if they are there to do a specific entertainment thing, that might only be of interest to a relatively small subgroup.)

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

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, "The Final Reflection" was the book written by John Ford in which the first chapter involves a chess-like game called Klin Zha. Not Mike Ford.


Respectfully,
Norman Schwartz
dragonstoo@charter.net