ChattaCon Report.

Oh, boy! Science fiction fandom is getting older and crabbier.
Science fiction fandom is getting younger and jerkier!

We got back from Chattanooga a little while ago. The trip over all was fun. The business was less than stellar.
Of course, a small dealers room with three big t-shirt vendors-disparate though they be- results in major dollar dilution. The venue was great, though. The Chattanooga Choo-Choo complex was our playground.

I have come to understand why I dislike SF cons after twenty-six years of being a huckster...AHEM...dealer. It is a known quality of SF fandom that it has by-and-large rejected religion (shoot, the Christian faith...any New-age / Old occult "alternative spirituality" is embraced, or at least smiled upon indulgently) and self-consciously revels in its release from outmoded morality. This has resulted in a toxic smugness with which I have no patience, a tony agnosticism which seeks no truth, as there is none to seek. The cultural niceties of politesse can easily be done away, as they only obfuscate "honest relationships".

So, one can always count upon a sound sleep being interrupted by people shouting outside your window, slamming doors, and yelling in the hall of your hotel. Always. As well as lording their intellect over you and your merchandise by "fixing" the sayings on your t-shirts. (Read The Aardvark's Illustrated Guide to Not Being An Obnoxious Customer)

I mean, these folks are the intelligentsia, the Brain Trust, the elite. They have cast from themselves the oppressive shackles of "religion". What should prevent them from indulging in rapine, pillaging, and the burning of the benighted meeting-houses of the deluded? They are free of moral stricture, and are free to do as they will!


Thus, they choose to shout, slam, and yell in the hallways.


Such is beyond my limited capacity for reason.


Addendum-

I met Bruce Bethke and his wife (he is The Original Cyberpunk).
He is a brick. Very nice guy, and is not to be included in the above
diatribe. AND he liked our offerings as they were, thank you very much!
My largest regret this weekend is that I had no time to sit and enjoy some manner of beverage with him, so as to solve all problems in the Blog-o-Verse.