----- Original Message ----- From: Harriet Monkhouse hflysator@jarriere.demon.co.uk
Fiona wrote:
And outside the lunatic fringe-- why do people go to cons, if not to have contact with their idols?
It's lunatic to want to meet friends outside of cyberspace?
Oh, now really, Harriet, you're letting the old school down :). I said "outside" the lunatic fringe, which if you read my original post you'll know referred to stalkers and other sad people. But I do know a lot of very sane and intelligent people who will go to a con just cause they know Paul Darrow (Sally Knyvette, whomever) will be there.
But to respond to what more than you have said-- yes, there are lots of other reasons to go to cons, it's true, than just to see actors. But it does have to be said, that the no-guest cons I've been to ("relaxicons" I've heard them called) are generally much more poorly attended than ones with guests (and even one I went to where they had a couple of well-know writers along was much more poorly attended than the rather small-scale DW con I went to which could only boast Nicola Bryant as a guest), and it seems to be a truism that the "bigger" the con, the "bigger" the name of the actors they get as guests (probably a positive-feedback thingy). I wouldn't consider myself starstruck by any means-- but the information that David Collings was going to be at Panopticon was a big incentive for me to attend.
So actors aren't the only reason to go to cons, it's definitely true-- but for a lot of people, they seem to be a big part of it, for whatever reason.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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