Worldcon Day 5: Monday
Another good day. Can't be bothered looking up all the links, I may add them later (dreamwidth is being wonky so I want to post this while I have the chance)
Illustration with Bob Eggleton, Andrew J McKiernan, Nick Stathopoulos, Jonathon Walker, Sean Tan.
My original plan was to duck out halfway through to hear Alistair Reynolds' reading. But it was interesting enough that I decided to stay…and then my phone rang so I left anyway (and kicked myself for not setting it to silent earlier).
Disney artists have to work from character sheets exactly, be "on model". Was not the dream job it seemed in childhood.
Illustration is not taken seriously, real artists "staple meat to walls" and are otherwise ~original~. Sean Tan never told anyone in his Fine Arts course he could draw. Made me think of anti fanart prejudice (illustration being a sort of fanart, really. I did not suggest this idea to the panel :D)
Science fiction and fantasy aren't taken seriously either.
Sometimes the brief/text make it VERY TRICKY: in "Star Trek the Motion Picture" the description was "something no man has seen before".
Not just decoration, tells a story via images.
It can be difficult to communicate with writers and art directors. It helps to have worn both hats. Big commercial publishers can be very staid about book covers (eg Always a couple back to back) independents allow more creative freedom.
The panel was 6 men, I found myself wondering if illustration is a very male dominated field and if so why (could just be random, though)
Alistair Reynolds reading. Missed the beginning, don't know the title. It was a short story written for Barklay's Bank about data security. There was a Wise Ancient Amazon Chief who seemed to exist only to help the protagonist solve her problem, when asked if he'd done any research Alistair Reynolds said "Not really, but I didn't base them on any particular tribe so that's hopefully ok". Hmm.
Apparently there are 5 people with memory sticks who can reboot the internet.
TV Worlds of Joss Whedon with Gina Goddard, Heath Miller, and Julia Svagonovic.
Joss noticed that his father and his scriptwriter friends were much more entertaining in person than their writing, wanted to capture that for tv.
Two strengths are continuity and the attention to minor characters. Other more episodic tv shows much more frustrating to watch on dvd.
Characters a mix of good and evil, damaged.
James Marsters felt that Spike was increasingly based on him and his own romantic history, felt a bit weird about it and stopped talking about his personal life on set. He also feels that Spike's ambiguity unbalances the stability of the "vampires are bad and ok to kill" premise of the show.
Firefly more concrete and real.
Dollhouse more of a challenge for the actors, not all up to it (eg Eliza Dushku)
Gina brought up the skeeviness of Firefly being so full of Chinese language and culture with no Chinese people, room erupted in excuses for how it's Totally Not Racist. I was literally shaking with low blood sugar and fatigue and got a bit ranty, I may not have been very coherent :/
On a search for lunch I bumped in Lily, who had been feeling increasingly unable to cope with the con and eventually got a mobility scooter too, and like me found that it was simultaneously much easier to hire and much more of a pain to drive than expected. So we went off to find accessible lunch and chat. Paul Cornell was in front of us in the queue! I decided to just smile shyly rather than bugging him with my increasingly woozy fangirlishness.
Hard sf shortcuts with Charles Stross, Gregory Benford, Jeff Harris, Alistair Reynolds.
Push plausibility too far and you break suspension of disbelief.
Someone asked Gregory Benford if he'd ever use FTL. "No!" he said loudly and firmly. "Never!" "What about in blah?" asked Alistair Reynolds. "Oh, well, yes, in that book I did, but I was very young…"
Mundane SF manifesto: No faster than light, no telepathy etc. They all had some sympathy but didn't do the full version which is very much about being on earth and dealing with realistic problems.
Implausible made up science can be a stand in for science that hasn't been invented yet since there's no way to accurately depict that from where we are now.
Blindspots: Climate Change, a lot of tech like pocket computers etc.
Gregory Benford went on a little spiel about the responsibility of sf writers to help society come to terms with the idea of climate change (and I'd agree) People are suffering future shock.
Teleportation: we'll disintegrate you and create a copy of you who thinks it's you, just so you can save on travel time.
But the atoms of our bodies cycle all the time, cells are replaced after a few days. It's like accelerated aging! Counter: It's like accelarted death.
Something I wanted to ask but didn't get a chance to: can't cutting edge science act not only as a limit but an inspiration? Look at Greg Egan or Charles Stross's Laundry series. Gives a chance for original plots beyond the same old sf tropes.
Fantasy Fiction and the Bechdel Test.
So, I turned up expecting to fangirl over Ellen Kushner…but the panel was cancelled. A bunch of us sat outside vaguely chatting and then went "Let's run it ourselves". So we did and it was great! I and
kerravonsen (who I had never met before, but we chatted later and turned out to both know
lizbee) ended up falling to some extent into the roles of moderators, since even when I am utterly drained at the end of a con I will perk up dramatically given the chance to pontificate to an audience. Underneath my extrovert's social energy I was still really tired so don't remember the panel very clearly. And I wasn't in a position to take notes! One thing I forgot to say was that f/f relationships are a great way to pass very easily :)
It was a pretty happy positive panel. People made lots of recs, off the top of my head: "The Privilege of the Sword", Xena, Mercedes Lackey, Judith Butler, Ursula K Leguin, Sherri S Tepper, Lois McMaster Bujold, "Deed of Paxnarion".
Talked to the woman next to me at the closing ceremony who turned out to also be from Perth and at her first con…and I was the second stranger to talk to her all con (and she only knew one person) It really wasn't set up for meeting new people, I'm moderately gregarious and still mostly ended up hanging with people I already knew. I don't know what the parties were like since I'm not a night person, though.
Walked along the river and went to the japanese restaurant Yar on the south bank for dinner, it was a bit meh but wheelchair accessible and the walk at twilight was pretty, and since it was raining we went back through the Crown casino mall and watched the fountains (water is much prettier when not falling on you) I wanted to buy nice sorbet but couldn't find any, but "The Chocolate Box" sold a variety of sugar and nut based things I can eat so I bought those instead and they are quite tasty.
Getting home was fairly drama free. I read the beginning of "Soulless" by Gail Carriger on the plane back, it's very light and fluffy and thus suited a plane trip.
I may post some general thoughts at some point, but I think I'll let them percolate a bit first. But overall: I had a really good time.
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/355772.html. There are
comments.
Illustration with Bob Eggleton, Andrew J McKiernan, Nick Stathopoulos, Jonathon Walker, Sean Tan.
My original plan was to duck out halfway through to hear Alistair Reynolds' reading. But it was interesting enough that I decided to stay…and then my phone rang so I left anyway (and kicked myself for not setting it to silent earlier).
Disney artists have to work from character sheets exactly, be "on model". Was not the dream job it seemed in childhood.
Illustration is not taken seriously, real artists "staple meat to walls" and are otherwise ~original~. Sean Tan never told anyone in his Fine Arts course he could draw. Made me think of anti fanart prejudice (illustration being a sort of fanart, really. I did not suggest this idea to the panel :D)
Science fiction and fantasy aren't taken seriously either.
Sometimes the brief/text make it VERY TRICKY: in "Star Trek the Motion Picture" the description was "something no man has seen before".
Not just decoration, tells a story via images.
It can be difficult to communicate with writers and art directors. It helps to have worn both hats. Big commercial publishers can be very staid about book covers (eg Always a couple back to back) independents allow more creative freedom.
The panel was 6 men, I found myself wondering if illustration is a very male dominated field and if so why (could just be random, though)
Alistair Reynolds reading. Missed the beginning, don't know the title. It was a short story written for Barklay's Bank about data security. There was a Wise Ancient Amazon Chief who seemed to exist only to help the protagonist solve her problem, when asked if he'd done any research Alistair Reynolds said "Not really, but I didn't base them on any particular tribe so that's hopefully ok". Hmm.
Apparently there are 5 people with memory sticks who can reboot the internet.
TV Worlds of Joss Whedon with Gina Goddard, Heath Miller, and Julia Svagonovic.
Joss noticed that his father and his scriptwriter friends were much more entertaining in person than their writing, wanted to capture that for tv.
Two strengths are continuity and the attention to minor characters. Other more episodic tv shows much more frustrating to watch on dvd.
Characters a mix of good and evil, damaged.
James Marsters felt that Spike was increasingly based on him and his own romantic history, felt a bit weird about it and stopped talking about his personal life on set. He also feels that Spike's ambiguity unbalances the stability of the "vampires are bad and ok to kill" premise of the show.
Firefly more concrete and real.
Dollhouse more of a challenge for the actors, not all up to it (eg Eliza Dushku)
Gina brought up the skeeviness of Firefly being so full of Chinese language and culture with no Chinese people, room erupted in excuses for how it's Totally Not Racist. I was literally shaking with low blood sugar and fatigue and got a bit ranty, I may not have been very coherent :/
On a search for lunch I bumped in Lily, who had been feeling increasingly unable to cope with the con and eventually got a mobility scooter too, and like me found that it was simultaneously much easier to hire and much more of a pain to drive than expected. So we went off to find accessible lunch and chat. Paul Cornell was in front of us in the queue! I decided to just smile shyly rather than bugging him with my increasingly woozy fangirlishness.
Hard sf shortcuts with Charles Stross, Gregory Benford, Jeff Harris, Alistair Reynolds.
Push plausibility too far and you break suspension of disbelief.
Someone asked Gregory Benford if he'd ever use FTL. "No!" he said loudly and firmly. "Never!" "What about in blah?" asked Alistair Reynolds. "Oh, well, yes, in that book I did, but I was very young…"
Mundane SF manifesto: No faster than light, no telepathy etc. They all had some sympathy but didn't do the full version which is very much about being on earth and dealing with realistic problems.
Implausible made up science can be a stand in for science that hasn't been invented yet since there's no way to accurately depict that from where we are now.
Blindspots: Climate Change, a lot of tech like pocket computers etc.
Gregory Benford went on a little spiel about the responsibility of sf writers to help society come to terms with the idea of climate change (and I'd agree) People are suffering future shock.
Teleportation: we'll disintegrate you and create a copy of you who thinks it's you, just so you can save on travel time.
But the atoms of our bodies cycle all the time, cells are replaced after a few days. It's like accelerated aging! Counter: It's like accelarted death.
Something I wanted to ask but didn't get a chance to: can't cutting edge science act not only as a limit but an inspiration? Look at Greg Egan or Charles Stross's Laundry series. Gives a chance for original plots beyond the same old sf tropes.
Fantasy Fiction and the Bechdel Test.
So, I turned up expecting to fangirl over Ellen Kushner…but the panel was cancelled. A bunch of us sat outside vaguely chatting and then went "Let's run it ourselves". So we did and it was great! I and
kerravonsen (who I had never met before, but we chatted later and turned out to both know
lizbee) ended up falling to some extent into the roles of moderators, since even when I am utterly drained at the end of a con I will perk up dramatically given the chance to pontificate to an audience. Underneath my extrovert's social energy I was still really tired so don't remember the panel very clearly. And I wasn't in a position to take notes! One thing I forgot to say was that f/f relationships are a great way to pass very easily :)
It was a pretty happy positive panel. People made lots of recs, off the top of my head: "The Privilege of the Sword", Xena, Mercedes Lackey, Judith Butler, Ursula K Leguin, Sherri S Tepper, Lois McMaster Bujold, "Deed of Paxnarion".
Talked to the woman next to me at the closing ceremony who turned out to also be from Perth and at her first con…and I was the second stranger to talk to her all con (and she only knew one person) It really wasn't set up for meeting new people, I'm moderately gregarious and still mostly ended up hanging with people I already knew. I don't know what the parties were like since I'm not a night person, though.
Walked along the river and went to the japanese restaurant Yar on the south bank for dinner, it was a bit meh but wheelchair accessible and the walk at twilight was pretty, and since it was raining we went back through the Crown casino mall and watched the fountains (water is much prettier when not falling on you) I wanted to buy nice sorbet but couldn't find any, but "The Chocolate Box" sold a variety of sugar and nut based things I can eat so I bought those instead and they are quite tasty.
Getting home was fairly drama free. I read the beginning of "Soulless" by Gail Carriger on the plane back, it's very light and fluffy and thus suited a plane trip.
I may post some general thoughts at some point, but I think I'll let them percolate a bit first. But overall: I had a really good time.
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/355772.html. There are
comments.