On a more typical note for this blog, it’s been a minor (well, very minor actually) ambition of mine to attend both a World Fantasy Convention and a World SF Convention in the same year. I’d been holding out hopes for 2006, with Melbourne bidding for the WFC that year. News to hand (well, just noticed by me, actually) reveals that the 2006 convention will be held in Austin, Texas, which I am sure will be spiffy. That means the ’06 conventions are WorldCon in Los Angeles (armpit of the Western world) and WFC in Austin. I imagine I’ll be in Texas in October, and should have a great time. As to ’07, I almost certainly won’t attend the WorldCon in Japan, so I’m hoping for somewhere wonderfully exotic for WFC that year. At this rate, though, I doubt I’ll make both in a single year during this decade. We’ll have to see.

Blogs always tempt rash, ill-considered comments. I’ve certainly done that, here and elsewhere, and up to a point I accept that as what happens. I do, however, want to make a serious point about the recent US election.

I have read a lot of comments from despairing American citizens who are struggling to come to terms with the results of yesterday’s election. After all, by any measure it is an overwhelming endorsement of President Bush and his policies. I’m struggling too, but I would encourage those people not to despair. Why? Because the rest of the world needs you, each and every one of you. Again, why?

Well, writing as someone living outside the United States, it feels very much like we non-Americans are at your nation’s mercy. Your nation overwhelms us with cultural exports, influences our domestic politics, dominates our economies, and invades us when, and as, it sees fit.

Realistically, the only protection we have is a sane American electorate, a body of voters who will eventually turn back the political tide. Sure, it is possible to talk about historical precedents for the rest of the world eventually rising up and overthrowing nations that act the way the United States is currently acting, but that is unlikely, violent and too long term. The best solution is for American citizens who want a better life for themselves, their children, and for the rest of the world to appreciate that they can still make a difference, they can still organise and vote. We cannot not, and we need you to do it.

My colleague at Locus, Rich Horton, is a far more productive soul than I. In addition to all of the many things he does, Rich writes ‘year in review’ overviews for most of the major magazines in the field each year. He’s just started posting them to his newsgroup, and so far he’s written about Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF.

For what it’s worth, I found myself agreeing with Rich about Asimov’s, especially his comments about the novella length fiction, not quite as sure about F&SF (I think it had a very good year, but not quite as good as Rich did), and less convinced about Analog. Actually, to clarify about F&SF, I thought that Sci Fiction was the best magazine in the field in 2004, but I would say that F&SF was the best print magazine in the field.

You don’t think she’s completely bummed today, do you?

With the largest US voter turn-out in almost forty years, George W. Bush was re-elected by a popular majority. The only possible conclusion to draw from this is that the majority of American citizens willing to vote endorsed Bush’s previous actions as President and supported his plans for the nation. What that says about the ‘popular consciousness ‘ in the US I don’t know, but today it feels like I don’t live far enough away. I can only imagine how the 48% of US voters who supported the other guy must feel.