Introduction: Conferring, Convening, Conversing, Communing

The late, great idaho historian merle wells was gloriously eccentric. One of his idiosyncrasies was a way of carrying a conversation across gaps of time. If he hadn't seen you for two years, he would remember exactly what you were talking about the last time and launch, without preamble, into his next point in the discussion. "Oh, say, about those Finnish homesteaders," he might begin, and heaven help you if you didn't remember which Finnish homesteaders or what the issue might have been. Dr. Wells's conversational style turns out to be particularly well suited to academic conferences and fan conventions. Some of my best discussions have been spread out over two or three trips to the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, with maybe an addendum at Wiscon. Some are still suspended, waiting for the next Science Fiction Research Association meeting or Readercon. I've learned over the years not to try to wind everything up at the end of a conference; better to leave a topic on the table to be picked up when chance and common interests bring the conversational partners back together.