Interaction We have made much of the fact that this is a British Worldcon, but we must never forget that it is being held in Scotland. “Let them know where they should visit whilst they’re here” was the original brief; but honestly, who reads the Souvenir Book during the convention. It is the Souvenir Book after all, and a souvenir is designed to bring back memories not provide them ex ante. So we have complemented Ken MacLeod’s views on Scotland with some ‘postcards’ which we hope will bring back memories for you of your trip to Scotland. (J&EH) OUTSIDE THE ARMADILLO Ken MacLeod We lived in a maisonette in Finsbury Park in North Darwin a clergyman. You do not even have to go London. A maisonette is like a flat, but with two that far back: you can still see the corridor where storeys. Below us was another maisonette, and we Darwin was sick after an anatomy class, and lived in a whole block of them. The lower row had decided not to become a doctor. front gardens, and each garden had a cherry tree in it. So, every early summer, our front window faced So it is a place to watch for ghosts and time on to a mass of pinkish white blossoms. travellers, and still a place where the future is shaped – and for all we know, reshaped. You can Until one day, when our neighbour below had a visit the museum and find yourself face to face party in his front garden. He sawed down the tree with Dolly, the first cloned mammal. Not far away and nailed a tray to the four-foot-high stump, for is the university’s Department of Artificial his guests to put their beer cans on. He played Intelligence, which a year or two ago was very loud music all afternoon and evening. destroyed in a mysterious fire. The fire brought down several ancient buildings in the Old Town, This was when we decided to move back to exposed hidden cellars, and covered the traces of Scotland. the time travellers. Have we ever looked back? Yes, sometimes. In Edinburgh a lot of sf, fantasy and horror writing Finsbury Park is an interesting and lively place, is going on. There are several simmering fandoms and London is a great city. South Queensferry is and writers’ circles, from which new writers quiet, and Edinburgh is a small city. But it is one emerge all the time. (Talk to Andrew Wilson.) The where a lot of history has happened and a lot of same sort of thing is going on in Glasgow. (Talk to futures, alternate pasts, and strange times are Hal Duncan.) Alasdair Gray and J K Rowling have being imagined. It is an outright Einstein given new shapes to fantasy. Edwin Morgan, intersection of historical timelines: the place Scotland’s national poet, still writes about space where, soon after the Jacobites left, David Hume and the future, and rewrites Gilgamesh. Glasgow and Adam Smith and James Hutton invented looks futuristic, from the past. It has been rebuilt to much of the modern world. Without them, Kant accommodate cars, while Edinburgh is constantly might have been a theologian, Marx a poet, and reconfigured to repel them. The architectures of the two cities are as opposed as their characters. Images of Scotland Edinburgh’s Old Town and New Town and its (Top left to bottom right) modest modern sprawl have a certain consistency. Botanic Gardens, Glasgow Glasgow looks as if the joystick of its design has Glasgow Cathedral been grabbed by different hands every decade. Transport Museum, Glasgow Edinburgh Castle 14th fairway at North Berwick Golf Club The country’s future may be stranger yet, but only Pipers at Culper Highland Games, Fife the time travellers know, and they are not telling. Loch Sheil from slopes of Ben Tuim For now, you have to make do with science fiction. Culzean Castle Maybople South Ayreshire Enjoy the Worldcon, but venture outside the Tug of War at Lonach Highland Games Aberdeenshire Looking across River Ness to Inverness Castle at night Armadillo, and look at what is taking shape, the Castle May home of Queen Mother new trees. Tall Ship in Glasgow Harbour Sky Bridge & Kyle of Loch Alsh Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow Ken MacLeod is the author of nine SF novels, River Clyde at Dusk (Moat House SECC, Armadillo & Rotunda) Stornaway Harbour Lewis Outer Hebrides the latest of which, Learning the World, has Forth Rail Bridge just been published in the UK by Orbit and Laphroig distillery on Isle Islay, Inner Hebrides will soon be published in the US by Tor. 81 Splitting Infinity Fandom Around the World What is it about fans which makes us travel enormous distances to strange new countries, or familiar old countries, just to wander around indoors for a weekend? Is it the same reason for everyone, or are there different attitudes in different parts of the world? Cheryl and BjØrn give us two views. (J&EH) Cheryl Morgan There is an Internet meme going round the blogs as I Canadians and Americans don’t go to Australia in write this about listing 10 things you have done that anywhere near such numbers (except once a decade most people will not have done. If I did such a list, for Worldcon), despite the fact that it is a superb one of the entries would be that I have lived on three tourist destination. The Boston folks are so well different continents. Which I guess is why I have organized that they can not only run a Worldcon been asked to write this article. I was born in the UK, with one hand tied behind their backs, they also run and lived there for most of my life. But I have also a successful publishing business. And tiny Finland, been Treasurer of the Melbourne Science Fiction with a population of less than that of greater Club, and I have various silly job titles (Minister of London, manages a national convention with an Misinformation, Viceroy without Carpetbag) at the attendance of over 3,000 at a time when British Bay Area Science Fiction Association in San José. I Eastercons are threatening to dip below 500. guess I have some experience of international Travel, as they say, broadens the mind. Sometimes fandom. those funny ‘furriners’ have good ideas. Now if you talk to fans (or indeed any people) about other countries, the first reaction you get is along the lines of, “them furriners, they do things different over there.” To some extent this is true. When I lived in London I attended The Tun, which is basically an Cheryl is the editor of Emerald City, an online excuse for some friends to have some beers together. science fiction and fantasy book review In Melbourne we met in a church hall, had an magazine and has contributed to Locus, extensive club library, and got together for club Foundation and Interzone and others. outings. In San José we meet in a restaurant and indulge in what we call Recreational Parliamentary Practice: the meeting has a formal structure, but BjØrn Tore Sund most of the business is very silly indeed. Fandom is about travelling. We choose to travel in Yet when you travel a lot you also notice that things our minds through reading, gaming, watching can be very different within a country. I’m told that movies and tv. And to someone from a small the Birmingham SF Group has formal meetings with town, in a small country, with a small fandom, guest speakers. The Boston club, NESFA, has its travelling is not a choice but a necessity. There are own clubhouse and relatively formal meetings. And more people elsewhere with whom I share fans in Sydney are so anarchic that they don’t seem interests, conversational topics, and friendships. to be able to manage a pub meeting, let alone run a The rest of the world is a big, fun place. convention (or at least if they do I’ve not found out about it). In any case, the most obvious thing about Fandom is about going home. To link up with fans around the world is that they are fans. They friends. “See you in Amsterdam?” “No, can’t make read the same books, watch the same TV shows and it.” “Well, Glasgow then?” movies, have the same tendency to obsess over detail Meeting the same people, or meeting new people and so on. An SF fan in London is likely to have far who share that common culture which makes more in common with a fan in Los Angeles or every new place feel like home. Every con, every Canberra than with a neighbour who is a fanatical city, every country provides a taste of a new football supporter. culture, but always with the same old culture on So rather than worry about differences between fans top of it. Not hiding it, just there. in different countries, I’d rather ask what we can Strong enough to make the new bits less alien, less learn from those differences. Fan groups around the strange, because there is something familiar there world do some amazing things. Why can’t others do as well. To someone from a small town, in a small them too? The Australians seem happy to travel country, with a small fandom, that is welcome. thousands of miles to attend cons, but Brits, 82 Interaction Fandom & the World Wide Web WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES… Sandy Auden & Ariel There was one specific event that switched me on to heart’s content and no one to look at you strangely the internet and it involved a book.