Worldcon Day 1
Before I get to it: am I being paranoid in thinking "When you click... links from Twitter.com or a Twitter application, Twitter will log that click. We hope to use this data to provide better and more relevant content to you over time. " means "we will data mine all your clicks for targeted ads"?
Anyway! Con was fun. People had told me Worldcon was like a big Swancon. And it is, including most of the same people. Seriously, just hanging about in hallways etc I kept bumping into people I know, plus (as I was told to expect) lots of expys who look like the people I know but are actually from the US or New Zealand etc.
The opening ceremony had a very fun video and a remarkable number of people.
I probably won't bother with panel descriptions once I've gone to more than two, but while I have nothing better to do...
First panel was "Breaking the Fourth Wall": Karen Miller, seanan-mcguire and Jeanette Auer. This was not as much about media which portrays it's fans (eg Becky from Supernatural) as I expected but was still interesting. Had an unspoken tension between Supernatural fans who thought killing off shoehorned-in female characters (which is to say, all of them) is good thing and those who thought it's sexist and at one point descended into filk but overall I enjoyed it. Afaict it's the only panel which is even vaguely related to fanfic all con (though the two panelists who mentioned Wincest were all "But it's so gross!". The third was silent on the issue, I assume she either doesn't read fanfic or is a secret Wincester :))
"Steal the Past, Build the Future: new histories for science fiction": Amanda Pillar, Catherynne M. Valente, Jonathan Walker, Kate Elliot
The description made this sound like "Why cultural appropriation is awesome!", but that was thankfully not the overall moral. Not that they addressed cultural appropriation very explicitly but they did mention the importance of research and respect etc (and also asked: do Australians say "I'm 1/32 Aboriginal, I can use these legends?" The answer being: No. I'd say that being even 1/32 Aboriginal is something people are likely to hide, not celebrate) Overall it was more about why and how fantasy concentrates on the medieval era than what it could concentrate on instead, which was quite interesting. Some of my scribbled notes:
People use what's familiar from school and culture etc, but also what they feel has legitimacy and authority.
History itself is a sort of fantasy, all about rewriting things so that the royal family is descended from Brutus who is descended from the gods etc, and so we write fiction about the English who saw themselves as following the Romans who saw themselves as following the Greeks etc. See: The battle of Kadesh.
Our view of the medieval era is distorted by the Victorians, who like us saw it as a bucolic escape from modernity. This creates expectations in readers who may be disappointed by fantasy which depicts an actual medieval society.
And then I was very very tired and I went back to the room and smsed Cam, and we went to the food court next door, grabbing the very last hot meal the Japanese place had. And now, I rest! Hopefully it won't be so tiring tomorrow since I'll know what I'm doing more. Plus I walked around the dealers room to get a brief look at what was around, which my legs think was a bad idea. (I wasn't feeling awake enough to drive the scooter without running anyone over)
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/354055.html. There are
comments.
Anyway! Con was fun. People had told me Worldcon was like a big Swancon. And it is, including most of the same people. Seriously, just hanging about in hallways etc I kept bumping into people I know, plus (as I was told to expect) lots of expys who look like the people I know but are actually from the US or New Zealand etc.
The opening ceremony had a very fun video and a remarkable number of people.
I probably won't bother with panel descriptions once I've gone to more than two, but while I have nothing better to do...
First panel was "Breaking the Fourth Wall": Karen Miller, seanan-mcguire and Jeanette Auer. This was not as much about media which portrays it's fans (eg Becky from Supernatural) as I expected but was still interesting. Had an unspoken tension between Supernatural fans who thought killing off shoehorned-in female characters (which is to say, all of them) is good thing and those who thought it's sexist and at one point descended into filk but overall I enjoyed it. Afaict it's the only panel which is even vaguely related to fanfic all con (though the two panelists who mentioned Wincest were all "But it's so gross!". The third was silent on the issue, I assume she either doesn't read fanfic or is a secret Wincester :))
"Steal the Past, Build the Future: new histories for science fiction": Amanda Pillar, Catherynne M. Valente, Jonathan Walker, Kate Elliot
The description made this sound like "Why cultural appropriation is awesome!", but that was thankfully not the overall moral. Not that they addressed cultural appropriation very explicitly but they did mention the importance of research and respect etc (and also asked: do Australians say "I'm 1/32 Aboriginal, I can use these legends?" The answer being: No. I'd say that being even 1/32 Aboriginal is something people are likely to hide, not celebrate) Overall it was more about why and how fantasy concentrates on the medieval era than what it could concentrate on instead, which was quite interesting. Some of my scribbled notes:
People use what's familiar from school and culture etc, but also what they feel has legitimacy and authority.
History itself is a sort of fantasy, all about rewriting things so that the royal family is descended from Brutus who is descended from the gods etc, and so we write fiction about the English who saw themselves as following the Romans who saw themselves as following the Greeks etc. See: The battle of Kadesh.
Our view of the medieval era is distorted by the Victorians, who like us saw it as a bucolic escape from modernity. This creates expectations in readers who may be disappointed by fantasy which depicts an actual medieval society.
And then I was very very tired and I went back to the room and smsed Cam, and we went to the food court next door, grabbing the very last hot meal the Japanese place had. And now, I rest! Hopefully it won't be so tiring tomorrow since I'll know what I'm doing more. Plus I walked around the dealers room to get a brief look at what was around, which my legs think was a bad idea. (I wasn't feeling awake enough to drive the scooter without running anyone over)
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/354055.html. There are
comments.