The Summit Seen in My Rear-View Mirror

Renewing another connection with my past lives, a couple weeks ago I made an appearance at one of the annual DargonZine Summits.

DargonZine is the amateur writing zine I founded and ran from 1984-1989 (then called FSFnet) and 1994-2006. In continuous publication for thirty-two years, it’s by far the longest-running electronic magazine on the internet. Since 1995, our writers have gotten together once a year at the DZ Summit to write, talk shop, socialize, and sight-see.

Although the location changes each year, the 2017 Summit took place in Cleveland OH. Since that’s only two hours’ drive from Pittsburgh, I drove up for an overnight visit. Even though my participation in the project ended a decade ago, I’m still good friends with my old crew (Liam, Jon, Daf, and Jim) who are running the show. Cleveland was doubly convenient, because Inna and I had just been there a month before, so I knew some of the sights and was comfortable getting around.

Overall, it was great spending time with my old friends, although 30 hours was just about the right amount of time. I didn’t want to interfere with the business side of the Summit, and the guys… they are all radically diverse people with longstanding differences. But I was glad to see that there wasn’t a lot of tension or annoyance amongst the group.

The frenetic pace of the Summit hasn’t changed since my time as Editor. Although I was only in town for a bit more than 24 hours, we packed a ridiculous amount of activity into that time: a glass sand-casting demo at the Glass Bubble, the Cleveland Museum of Art, snacks at the West Side Market, ice cream at Mitchell’s, Indian food at Cafe Tandoor, and Ethiopian food at Empress Taytu. And we found time to play games Sagrada (too left-brain, even for me), Lanterns (okay), Sushi Go (eh), and old favorite Carcass One (thoroughly fun). The busy pace reminded me of so many Summits past.

Although I’m usually a very quiet in most normal social situations, I was surprised to rediscover that as (former) leader and (former) center of the social circle, my social style with the writers is quite different. With them I’m energetic (perhaps even gregarious), more impulsive, and prone to mischief, such as playfully trying to challenge people’s digestive resilience by suggesting Indian food, ice cream, and Mexican food. And I’ve always pushed people’s physical activity levels, because I get restless and grumpy without an adequate outlet for physical energy.

We have all aged a lot since my last involvement ten years ago, but I was surprised by the health issues amongst the group. It gave me a new appreciation for my own physical state, even if I, too, am less sprightly than I once was.

Also thanks to my friends (and their families), I left with a renewed appreciation for how respectful, responsible, and self-sufficient my partner is. No more need be said!

Of course, with my buddies growing older, this brief re-engagement with DargonZine a decade after my departure brings up the inevitable questions about the magazine’s future: how long it will continue, who will keep it going, and whether it will die in obscurity despite its longevity. With over thirty years of background material to learn, there’s a high barrier to entry for new writers, and it would be hard to nurture a strong sense of ownership among younger members.

So in due time DZ, which was once the most important thing in my life, will probably disappear. But it’s already had an incomprehensibly long run and truly fulfilled my aspirations to create an online community for developing writers, while providing them with a creative outlet and feedback from an appreciative audience. It remains one of my most noteworthy creations, and I’m very deeply proud of our writers and pleased with the friendships that have been forged between them.

And I’m also deeply thankful that they’ve willingly devoted the time and energy to keep it going for so long. Between a five-year stint in the early 90s and the eleven years since 2006, they’ve run DargonZine for nearly as long as I did, which is quite an accomplishment. Well done, team!