A Cosmopolitan Literature for the Cosmopolitan Web. Standing in Melbourne airport on the day before this year’s World Science Fiction convention, I found myself playing the familiar road-game known to all who travel to cons: spot the fan. Sometimes, ‘‘spot the fan’’ is pitched as a pejorative, a bit of fun at fannish expense, a sneer about the fannish BMI, B-O, and general hairiness. But there are plenty of people who are heavyset, and practically everyone debarking an international flight to Melbourne is bound to smell a little funky, and beard-wearing is hardly unique to fandom. If there is one thing that characterizes fandom for me, it is a kind of cosmopolitanism. Now, we tend to think of ‘‘cosmopolitan’’ as a synonym for ‘‘posh’’ or ‘‘well-travelled.’’ But that’s not what I mean here: for me, to be cosmopolitan is to live your life by the ancient science fictional maxims: ‘‘All laws are local’’ and ‘‘No law knows how local it is.’’
Which is not to say that cosmopolitans don’t believe in anything. Omni Magazine Online - Tribute Website. Scientific American Mind. Wired.com. Communist Robot - Where do you stand on the future? Lightspeed Magazine | Science Fiction Short Stories Weekly edited by John Joseph Adams. Lightspeed Magazine | Science Fiction Short Stories Weekly edited by John Joseph Adams.