There's a new (i.e. old) contentendor for first ever SF convention:

https://www.cracked.com/article_31795_the-odd-origin-of-the-worlds-first-sci-fi-convention.html
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

On 11/17/2021 4:24 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> There's a new (i.e. old) contentendor for first ever SF convention:
>
> https://www.cracked.com/article_31795_the-odd-origin-of-the-worlds-first-sci-fi-convention.html
>
Definitely a proto-con, but much like the Viking discovery of North
America, it doesn't seem to have had long-term effects.

Tim

On 11/17/21 4:24 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> There's a new (i.e. old) contentendor for first ever SF convention:
>
> https://www.cracked.com/article_31795_the-odd-origin-of-the-worlds-first-sci-fi-convention.html
>

It immediately set the precedent of being a financial failure, a
tradition many cons have followed.

The article calls the line "It was a dark and stormy night," which
opened his novel _Paul Clifford_, a "dreadful melodramatic opening."
Why? It's vivid, descriptive, and brief.

The rest of the sentence piles on 51 more words, in sharp contrast to
the short statement that always gets attacked. The one important piece
of information, that the scene of the story is London, is relegated to
parentheses within the sentence.

The reason "It was a dark and stormy night" is considered bad may be
that Snoopy used it as the start of his aimless attempts to write
fiction. In one strip, he follows it with a series of non sequiturs,
which he promises to tie together.

_The Three Musketeers_ uses an essentially equivalent line, though in
French and not at the beginning of the novel.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

On Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 4:24:55 PM UTC-5, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> There's a new (i.e. old) contentendor for first ever SF convention:
>
> https://www.cracked.com/article_31795_the-odd-origin-of-the-worlds-first-sci-fi-convention.html
> --
> Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
> Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

That's hardly news. This has been written about numerous times.

Fun fact: the bouillon-based spread, Bovril, is a portmanteau of 'Bos'
(Latin for cow), and 'Vril', from the book that inspired this event.

Pt

On Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 6:18:57 PM UTC-5, Peter Trei wrote:
> On Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 4:24:55 PM UTC-5, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> > There's a new (i.e. old) contentendor for first ever SF convention:
> >
> > https://www.cracked.com/article_31795_the-odd-origin-of-the-worlds-first-sci-fi-convention.html
> > --
> > Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
> > Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
> That's hardly news. This has been written about numerous times.
>
> Fun fact: the bouillon-based spread, Bovril, is a portmanteau of 'Bos'
> (Latin for cow), and 'Vril', from the book that inspired this event.

Well, the article mentions that at the end, I see. I hadn't bothered reading
it through, since it was old news.

Pt

On 11/17/21 4:24 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> There's a new (i.e. old) contentendor for first ever SF convention:
>
> https://www.cracked.com/article_31795_the-odd-origin-of-the-worlds-first-sci-fi-convention.html
>

Contentendor? Is that Spanish, or is it what's inside a Star Wars moon?

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

Gary McGath <garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
> Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>> There's a new (i.e. old) contentendor for first ever SF convention:

>> https://www.cracked.com/article_31795_the-odd-origin-of-the-worlds-first-sci-fi-convention.html

> Contentendor? Is that Spanish, or is it what's inside a Star Wars moon?

Sorry. I don't know how I made such an extreme typo and failed to
catch it.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.