For those who weren't there, Penguicon is this big annual Sci-Fi and open source software convention held every year in metro Detroit. The fact that it blends real high-tech stuff (the open source software) with science fiction makes it fairly unique among conventions, at least in my experience, for this mixture of fantasy and fact, of imagination and reality.
The reason for the season
However, this spiel doesn't do anything to explain what the whole thing is really about.
You've probably been to some sort of convention before - one of those things where you go from table to table looking at new vendor products or trying to network and make new contacts. A con is different than this sort of convention while superficially maintaining a lot of important tropes in common - there are tables where you can buy things or learn something, and there are panels consisting of 3-5 authorities on some topic or another giving impromptu speeches or Q and A sessions, and it is a gathering of like-minded individuals, or at least like-interested individuals.
Where I see a difference between con and convention is not in the execution, but in the reception. A convention is a largely professional meet-and-greet followed by a few rounds at the bar and a lot of hand shaking. A con is a god damned wonderful bacchanal of weird.
Me with an extremely honored guest
One thing to understand about con goers is that they are without exception nerds. There's different degrees of nerds - My friends and I are gamer nerds, but three of them are also computer nerds, and I'm a literature nerd. We spent a lot of time with some history nerds, and we all banded together to make fun of the overweight furry nerds, who are so inured to mockery that they basically get off on it.
It's also wall-to-wall aspies. To the unfamiliar, an aspie is either someone who suffers from the high-functioning autism-spectrum disorder Asperger's Syndrome, or someone who read about Asperger's Syndrome on the Internet and has decided to co-opt the disease as an explanation for their social ineptitude. It doesn't really matter if the aspie is a diagnosable aspie or an identity aspie as they act exactly the same: inability to determine when they've said something offensive or rude, failure to comprehend the subtle body language that tells others they are being ignored or dismissed, and a laser-like focus on one or two subjects that bore the piss out of whomever they are speaking to.
It's funny because it mocks the disabled
But: indulge these people in an entire day completely devoted to those one or two esoteric topics of interest, and then cram them full of beer, and you have one hell of a party. I've written before about the general decline of nerd ridicule, and in a broad sociological sense I think that's true, but it's still very hard to be different in the day-to-day context. This is a nice padded way of saying that these people get picked on, shunned, or ignored 9 days out of 10, and the only place they feel really comfortable is with other misfits, wallflowers, and pariahs like themselves.
A con is wall-to-wall misfits, wallflowers, and pariahs, and they quickly develop a critical mass that culminates in a supernova of drunken debauchery. Surrounded by kindred spirits, their inhibitions melt away - it no longer matters that they're not socially graceful, or articulate, or good looking, or charming, or (and I'm sorry to reinforce a stereotype here) acceptably hygienic. Nobody in the con can judge you, because you're all in it together. It would be like the pot calling the kettle black if both the pot and the kettle were wearing plastic elf ears and stabbing each other with toy light sabers.
Loser buys the first round - WOOOOO!
For our part, we had a great time from the first minute. I only attended one day, while my friends were there for the whole weekend. I observed two panels concerning financing for artists and freelancers (very important information as I am an artist and a freelancer), and I took a one-hour swing dancing class.
After the class, we went upstairs to the room of the history nerds and dressed in Roman outfits - senators, centurions, consuls; lots of tunics and togas - and proceeded to walk around with a big "temple on wheels" from which we served drinks and gave out wooden-sword paddlings to anyone who wanted to join our clique. We drank and then drank more. We broke off and went to different parties, we drank with strangers, we turned strangers into friends, and by 4:30 we finally collapsed exhausted in our room.
During the swing dancing class, I had the pleasure of dancing with a pretty girl from Rochester, NY. As we danced, she took a wrong turn and seemed really distraught about it. I asked what was wrong, and in a quiet little voice she said, "it's okay - it's just my crippling social anxiety." I can't think of a better analogy for the whole thing - it was a special kind of opposite day where they pretty girls were shy and awkward, keeping quietly to themselves, and the strangest misfits were boisterous and proud, getting drunk and flashing the hotel staff.
I've been to a few cons, and in my experience that social role reversal is pretty normal - Penguicon just happens to have done it with extra flair, charm, and style. If you're a con type of person (I'm normally not, for the record), I can't recommend this one strongly enough, and if you've never been, this would be a wonderful opportunity to observe the species in its native habitat.
Helmet schnapps - Veni, Vidi, Vici
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