{"id":21076,"date":"2015-12-06T19:36:15","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T00:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=21076"},"modified":"2015-12-06T19:36:15","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T00:36:15","slug":"what-we-were-all-doing-at-the-1974-worldcon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/06\/what-we-were-all-doing-at-the-1974-worldcon\/","title":{"rendered":"What we were all doing at the 1974 Worldcon"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you attended Sasquan<\/a>—the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention—in Spokane earlier this year, deciding how to best spend your time was probably tough, for inside the 148-page program book each attendee received were listed 241 panels alone, plus multiple readings, presentations, kaffeeklatsches, and more.<\/p>\n

\"SasquanProgram\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Things were quite different in 1974, however, the year 19-year-old me attended his first Worldcon—Discon II<\/a>, the 32nd World Science Fiction Convention.<\/p>\n

I’d hoped my first Worldcon was going to be a year earlier, and still don’t understand why it wasn’t<\/a>, but in any case, when I arrived at Discon II, I was given a program agenda far shorter than those to which we’ve become accustomed in recent decades. Programming, rather than filling a book, consisted of a single sheet of 8-1\/2″ x 11″ paper folded in half. <\/p>\n

Here’s what you’d have been able to witness had you been there with me in Washington, D.C. <\/p>\n

\"DisconIIProgramPage1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DisconIIProgramPage2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DisconIIProgramPage3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DisconIIProgramPage4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So which of these programming items did I choose to attend? <\/p>\n

Well, there was no way I was going to miss Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison hurling insults at each other across a crowded ballroom, or the screening of a rough cut of A Boy and His Dog<\/em>, or Roger Zelazny’s Guest of Honor speech, or the Hugo banquet and ceremony. Or endless wandering through the dealers room, where I picked up several items I still own<\/a> to this day.<\/p>\n

Sadly, of many panels I remember little. A women in science fiction panel featuring Susan Wood, Katherine Kurtz, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro? A panel on the problems facing today’s (well, 1974’s) science fiction magazines, with Jim Baen, Ben Bova, Ed Ferman, and Ted White? How I wish there was audio or video of those for us to relive those presentations today! If you wonder why I try to record every convention panel or reading I attend and share them on YouTube<\/a>, that’s why. Such wisdom shouldn’t vanish.<\/p>\n

And if you’re wondering what younger me looked lack back them, well<\/a> …<\/p>\n

\"1974Worldcon\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By the way—Discon II wasn’t just my<\/em> first Worldcon. It was also the first Worldcon for Brett Cox<\/a> and Bruce Sterling. If it was your first Worldcon, too, give a shout!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you attended Sasquan—the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention—in Spokane earlier this year, deciding how to best spend your time was probably tough, for inside the 148-page program book each attendee received were listed 241 panels alone, plus multiple readings, presentations, kaffeeklatsches, and more. Things were quite different in 1974, however, the year 19-year-old me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,16],"class_list":["post-21076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-science-fiction","tag-worldcon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21076"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21093,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21076\/revisions\/21093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}