I think there may be an interesting national split here.
In the UK at least, and I think Europe more generally (vis the Finland bid), the lit fans are generally more welcoming to new influences. This isn't universal - see the reaction of some to 9Worlds - but the general mood is much more welcoming than in the US - see the reaction to the Orlando bid.
One reason for this, I think, is that there are fewer large commercial cons in Europe like DragonCon & ComiCon, which suck in a lot of the new people because they advertise more strongly, have a larger media presence, and because their livelihood depends on bums on seats. Lit fans can afford to be a bit more complacent.
However, having said that, I've not been to many of the smaller US litcons, like Readercon or Wiscon, and have not been to a regional like Boscone/Arisia or LosCon in the US for a very long time. The demographics there may be different.
What we may be seeing is the death/transformation of Worldcon in the US, and that might be triggered by the potentially large number of non-US Worldcons in the coming decade, if Dublin, Japan, Australia and others can win.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-09-05 09:30 am (UTC)In the UK at least, and I think Europe more generally (vis the Finland bid), the lit fans are generally more welcoming to new influences. This isn't universal - see the reaction of some to 9Worlds - but the general mood is much more welcoming than in the US - see the reaction to the Orlando bid.
One reason for this, I think, is that there are fewer large commercial cons in Europe like DragonCon & ComiCon, which suck in a lot of the new people because they advertise more strongly, have a larger media presence, and because their livelihood depends on bums on seats. Lit fans can afford to be a bit more complacent.
However, having said that, I've not been to many of the smaller US litcons, like Readercon or Wiscon, and have not been to a regional like Boscone/Arisia or LosCon in the US for a very long time. The demographics there may be different.
What we may be seeing is the death/transformation of Worldcon in the US, and that might be triggered by the potentially large number of non-US Worldcons in the coming decade, if Dublin, Japan, Australia and others can win.