cjh@CCA-UNIX@csin.UUCP (08/24/83)
t I suspect that there are a lot of factors that are affecting this matter. --Dave Axler Certainly Warner is generally more trustworthy than Moskowitz---but Moskowitz was \there/ (1) Very few people I know took package tours from the US to Seacon; judging from my recent investigations, package tours don't offer anything amenable to convention-going across the Atlantic with any great savings (the Pacific is another matter). In fact, I think Noreascon took place while Laker was still flying. Also, package tours can accommodate groups as small as 25, which could certainly be gotten together at least in England. (2) Income levels are hard to compare, and currency figures of questionable relevance (at both Seacon and Aussiecon the host country's money was trading at a several-year high relative to the dollar). (3) My impression, from various reports back to American publications from European fans attending cons on the continent, is that continental fandom (at least) tends to be much more sercon than Esl fandom---Jerucon in particular has advertised as if it were strongly oriented towards academics, and Brunner has mentioned how the Eurocon at which he was GoH seemed to expect him to remain aloof. Certainly Europe, which in size and population more than matches the 48 states, doesn't generate as much fan activity; Eurocons are much smaller than recent Worldcons, and I don't think this reflects language barriers since most Europeans learn multiple languages when they're young enough to learn readily. But this should not cause diffidence; every foreign bid before 1981 had won (and 1981 might not have broken the string had it not been for \two/ foreign bids, one of which necessarily had to lose). The publishing situation is similarly unbalanced; many US magazines are reprinted in other languages, with some fraction of the contents replaced by local material, but the converse doesn't happen. And the material that does get translated and published here hardly rouses enthusiasm for parity. It is possible to argue major cultural differences which tend to encourage US domination of SF, starting with the huge numbers of dime novels and their successor magazines (PERRY RHODAN in Germany is the only comparable item I know of). The early history of US fandom, especially those segments out of which many pros appeared, has its resemblances to student politics in Europe, but somehow this intense ferment SF doesn't seem to have crossed the water.