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I'm back from WorldCon, and it was wonderful, as it always is (or at least as it has been the previous 2 times I've gone)!!! And now I'm super bummed that it's over. But anyways, I'm going to do a very detailed, long recap of my experience mostly just for myself and so I can look back in the future and remember everything, so if you don't want to read through all that, some of the highlights definitely included George R.R. Martin reading a new chapter from The Winds of Winter, Rory McCann (aka the Hound from Game of Thrones) showing up, the Hugos (even if I usually don't agree with most of the stuff that wins, it's such a fun experience getting to vote and then actually be in the audience for the awards), Connie Willis's panels, Seanan McGuire's panels, and… honestly just about every single panel I went to. I don't know if I was just better at choosing panels this year to go to or if the panels in general were actually better than in past years, but there were no panels that really made me angry, and only 1 that I left early from (well, I left several like 5 min or so early just because of being afraid of getting a seat at really popular panels, like the GRRM reading, but that doesn't really count). So yeah, it really was just an excellent experience!
WEDNESDAY
The con didn't actually start programming until Thursday, but my mom and I spent Wednesday flying out to San Antonio. I've only been to San Antonio once before, and I was like… 7 or 8 at oldest, so it's not like I remember very much. I also didn't get to see much of the city since, you know, my purpose in being there was to go to the convention, and the hotel was just across the street from the convention center:
It was kind of a different-looking convention center. It was split in half by the river, and the river level of the center was below the street center. I mean, it was a little confusing navigating the center at first, but I was able to figure it out quickly enough. And the river area was just really pretty. Most nights my mom and I would walk along the river to locate somewhere for dinner:
So yeah, even though I didn't get to see much of the actual city, it was a really nice setting, and while I would be more eager to visit Chicago (which is where Worldcon was located last year) outside of the convention setting, I thought that this was a much better set-up overall in terms of the convention than either of the previous 2 Worldcons I've been to.
THURSDAY
Coming of Age in the 60's: This panel was Connie Willis (who is one of my favorite authors of all time) and Robert Silverberg (who I haven't read, but he's one of the science fiction greats) talking about science fiction in the 60s, basically. Except it really ended up being more specifically about like the free love/drug culture and its influence on SF during that time. They also focused a bunch on one of Heinlein's works, and even though he's also a SF great, I haven't read anything of his (primarily because from what I've read about his work, I doubt it would really be my thing). I was hoping that they would discuss more like the civil rights movements and how SF during that time did or did not reflect those movements, and while I didn't think the entire panel would be about it, I was surprised that a panel about the 60s didn't discuss them at ALL. So that was disappointing. Plus, Robert Silverberg started annoying me because he was talking about how Heinlein's work is criticized now a lot of the time for being sexist and how people don't understand the context of the time and need to keep in mind what a different time it was, and it was so incredibly frustrating to me, because, like, I feel like most people who make those criticisms (and I don't know about Heinlein specifically, but just in terms of criticizing older works on the basis of sexism/racism/etc.) DO understand the context they were written in, but it's still important to point those issues out!!! EVERYTHING is problematic, I mean, even stuff like Parks and Rec has some major issues at times, but it's still okay to like that stuff!!! You just need to not pretend they don't have any issues at all, or never discuss the fact that they exist. Plus, I mean, I might recognize the times were different when something was written and the attitudes towards women were the prevailing attitudes during the time, but those issues can STILL BOTHER ME and make it uncomfortable for me to read something. And also, some of my absolute favorite films are from the 40s and 50s, and I don't have any major issues with the way women are depicted in most of those films overall. There are plenty of works pre-60s which don't have those glaring issues despite the time period in which they were produced, so it's hard for me to take the argument that "Oh, it was written in the 60s, of course it has offensive views towards women! Just ignore it!" seriously.
Anyways. I did enjoy the panel overall!!! This sounds so much more negative, when it was really just a small part of the panel that bothered me. Connie Willis is always absolutely wonderful and hilarious, and she and Robert Silverberg have been friends for decades, and they have a great rapport, so most of the panel was very entertaining.
After the panel, I took my first trip to the Dealer's Room, which is where there are a bunch of book sellers and displays of art and people selling jewelry and shirts and really just all sorts of cool stuff. Including:
And I managed to locate a copy of Chimes at Midnight, the newest book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire that I am totally obsessed with and which wasn't supposed to come out for another 5 days, so that was also awesome (and I definitely spent the rest of the day trying to read the book during any spare minute I could find).
Fantastic London: This panel included Gail Carriger (writer of the Parasol Protectorate series, which I read and mostly enjoyed, although I lost interest in the series with each additional book), Paul Cornell (writer of some of my absolute favorite Doctor Who eps of all time, Human Nature/Family of Blood and Father's Day), and Elizabeth Bear (I've only read one of her books, which I liked well enough, but she's on the SF Squeecast along with Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Catherynne Valente, and Lynne Thomas, which is basically just a podcast about them squeeing about mostly books but also random stuff as well, and which has now won 2 Hugos!!!). It was basically just about London as a setting for fantasy, and it was really interesting! I'm planning on going to London next year for Worldcon (I don't want to say it'll 100% happen because I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to be doing a year from now, but my mom's on board, so as long as I'm able to attend, I definitely plan to go), so it was fun hearing about London in general and really makes me excited to visit there. And I also fell a little in love with Paul Cornell during the panel. I mean, I was familiar with him before from the podcast and from the DW eps he's written, but just… he was talking about Jack the Ripper, and I don't completely remember what he was saying now because this was almost a week ago now. But he was discussing how people were killing prostitutes before and after Jack the Ripper and these murders just became famous because there were some similarities between them, or something? And he was talking about writing a sequel to his current novel about a string of murders in the same vein as Jack the Ripper, but all the victims are white dudes, and I was like, "Okay, I may have to read your books now."
Autograph Session - Paul Cornell: I wasn't actually planning on going to this, but my mom is currently reading his novel, London Falling, and we had nothing else to do, so we were like, "Why not go get the book signed by him?" So we did, and he was really delightful. He was so excited that my mom had a hardcover copy of his book, and he was also super adorable with this like 4-year old child who was in front of us in line (obviously with her parents, not just like… by herself). So that was a lot of fun.
Reading - Connie Willis: I went to the reading she did last year, where she read a chapter of a telepathy novel she was working on, and this time, she read a different chapter of that same book. And man, I NEED THIS BOOK. I am dying for it, ugh!!!! It's in the same vein of Bellwether (and a little To Say Nothing of the Dog, but mostly just the humor aspects rather than anything about the plot) with a rom com set in an office setting, and it's just so fun and entertaining (from the 2 chapters I've now heard, at least). While I love her time travel books, I also really adore Bellwether (I just reread it a week or two ago, actually! And it was possibly better than I remembered), and I'm glad she's doing something on that track for a change. I am kind of spoiled by some authors (like Seanan McGuire) who put out 3+ books a year, and then there are authors like Connie Willis (and, of course, George R.R. Martin) who put them out every 3-5+ years, and it's torture for me. But I think she said the novel is due in Feb. to her editor, so I'm hoping it'll be out late 2014/early 2015??? WHICH IS STILL TOO LONG FROM NOW. But I suppose it's better than last year when it was just kind of like, "Here's this book I'm working on and it'll take 3-5 years for it to come out!"
Seanan McGuire Concert:
This was great! I had just kind of randomly seen her perform at the first Worldcon I went to. While I was a huge fan of her writing already then, I hadn't ever heard her music, and I wasn't planning on going to see her perform, but there was nothing else during the time period, and I wanted something to kill time, so me and my mom went, and she's actually really great! My mom's an even bigger fan of her music than I am, which I find kind of amusing for some reason. But yeah, so anyways, we saw her again this year, and she was, again, really great. I have one of her albums and the concert reminded me that I should listen to it more.
Just a Minute: This was kind of a game show? There were 4 contestants (one of whom was Connie Willis) and Paul Cornell was the host, and basically he would give them a topic (for example, "My favorite unicorn," or "My new Hugo category") and then the first person would start and have to talk about the subject for 1 minute, but they couldn't digress from the topic at all, hesitate or say "um," or repeat any words other than the words in the subject and basic parts of speech, like "and," "the," etc. And it was just really fun and hilarious. I was impressed with any of the people who were able to speak on a topic for 30+ seconds (pretty sure no one went a full 60 seconds) without repeating a word or hesitating at all; that seems basically impossible for me.
FRIDAY
Fans and Academia: This panel had Lynne Thomas on it, who I like from the podcast I mentioned before (and she also edited an anthology about women and Doctor Who, which makes me like her). I'm not sure exactly what I expected from this panel, but it somehow didn't match my expectations? Not in a good or bad way. But anyways, most of the people on the panel were either professors or librarians at colleges, and they talked about how SF doesn't have a huge presence in academia even though it's a bit better than it used to be, but colleges don't really advertise for, like, a person who specializes in SF, they would advertise for a professor who focuses on 19th century American lit, but would want the person to also be able to teach a SF class, or being able to teach a SF class would be a bonus, or something. And they talked about how professors definitely have much greater cred if they focus on traditional subjects like Victorian lit than if they focus on SF or other genre stuff. And they also mentioned stuff about how there will be like one class maybe for something genre-related, but typically not more than that, but that something like a class about Harry Potter will get filled up by college students in a split second. And they said plenty of other stuff as well, but yeah, overall even though it wasn't quite what I thought it would be, it was very interesting, mostly just because I obviously love SF, and I also love things related to academia and college, so it was relevant to my interests.
The Romance of Train Travel: I only caught the last 15 min of this panel because I had rushed to get some lunch between the previous panel I had gone to and this one. I went to this because I found that I really adore classic movies set on trains, or at least where train travel plays a big role, such as The Lady Vanishes, so I was hoping it would be focused on train travel stories in SF, and Jo Walton was on the panel, and she won the Hugo for Best Novel last year (and I really loved her book that won, Among Others). Unfortunately it turned out that it was actually about train travel in real life, which was less interesting. But I ended up sticking around for it because what else was I going to do for 15 minutes.
Meet the New Doctor: Helen Mirren: This panel included Lynne Thomas, who tends to have good DW opinions, so I decided to risk attending it, despite my bad experiences with DW panels at Worldcons in the past. It was focused on the idea of having a female Doctor, and it was 3 girls and 1 guy, and it was super great!!! All of them agreed with no hesitation that it's far past time there should be a female Doctor, and there's zero canon basis for it not being possible. Although Lynne Thomas did qualify her support for there being a female Doctor that she would want to wait until Steven Moffat wasn't in charge, which, yeah, can't disagree with her there. My only issue with the panel is that one of the members was a girl who couldn't have been older than 14, and she had only started watching Doctor Who about a year ago (although she had caught up and seen all of New Who), and like… I just couldn't understand why she was on the panel??? In smaller conventions you'll see random fans on panels, but at Worldcon, you typically have to like… have something published or be a really prominent fan writer or something, like, you can't just be a random person. And there was nothing explained about who she was!!! It was so confusing to me. She also misinterpreted a lot of the questions and wasn't really sure what to say a lot of the time. However, I will say that it was kind of worth it that she was on the panel, because she did say one thing that I loved and thought was awesome. They had been talking about the fact that the Doctor's only supposed to be able to have 12 regenerations and we're going to be getting to the 13th Doctor in not too long, and the show will have to deal with that fact, and this girl was like, "I think after he gets to his last regeneration, he should regenerate into a woman, and then there would be 12 female Doctors after that," and the whole room applauded for that, and it was great. The panel also discussed wanting non-white Doctors. So yeah, overall it was a really wonderful panel.
Reading - Catherynne M. Valente: Some of Catherynne Valente's stuff is a bit hit or miss for me? I just feel like I don't always get it, like, Deathless was beautifully written, but I am not entirely sure what it was about; I feel like I missed a lot. But regardless of the story, I do always love her writing, and so I was interested in hearing whatever she's working on. The book she read from is one she's working on and planning on putting out next summer/fall, and it's hard to describe, but it felt very noir-esque, and it's set in the future on a different planet, and Hollywood/movies are involved, and… idk, it was different, and I wasn't completely in love with what she read, but it was interesting, and it sounds like the book could be really relevant to my interests, so I will definitely be eager to read it once it finally comes out.
"What If" Moments in History: I only caught the 2nd half of this because the Catherynne Valente reading took place during the first 30 minutes. I wasn't really familiar with anyone on the panel, but it was basically what it sounds like, where they talked about writing about points in history where something else could have happened than what actually happened and how you go about figuring out how history could play out and different things people have written about, and it was very interesting and made me wish I had been able to catch the first half.
Good Things Do Come from Small Places: This panel had Connie Willis on it, which was the main reason I wanted to go to it. She and the other panelists talked about growing up in small towns and how that affected their writing and stuff. They talked much more about their real lives and real small towns rather than fiction set in small towns (which I was kind of hoping for, just because I do really enjoy fiction set in small towns and think there should be more of it), but it turned out really great just because the panelists were all really fascinating to listen to.
Reading - George R.R. Martin:
Two years ago GRRM read an Arianne chapter from The Winds of Winter, and last year I had been hoping he would read another chapter, but instead he read something from a book he had been working on about stuff that took place in Westeros pre-series, which was interesting but definitely not as exciting as a new chapter of TWoW. So this year I was trying to keep my expectations low, but he ended up reading a new Tyrion chapter of TWoW! I didn't take notes, and I'm also not a great aural learner (I'm super visual), so I'm not going to bother with a summary (and I'm sure there are already super detailed ones out there), but it was pretty good. I mean, Tyrion's not my favorite character (well, earlier in the series he was, but not by the end of ADwD), and not much really happened in the chapter. It takes place in Mereen, and Jorah's around, and Victarion's fleet is coming in, and Dany's disappeared on one of her dragons and no one knows if she's alive, and Tyrion basically just remembers his first battle, and how that's more memorable for him than Blackwater because you always remember your first, and he remembers Shae a little, and Tysha, and 2 of Dany's dragons are flying about, and Penny's there and kisses Tyrion, and… idk, stuff like that. Mostly about the upcoming (ongoing?) battle at Mereen. But even if it wasn't my favorite chapter, it was still just fun to hear new material from the book!!!
SF Squeecast Panel: This was a live recording of the SF Squeecast podcast I mentioned before, so it included Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, Catherynne Valente, Lynne Thomas, and a special guest who I wasn't familiar with. And it was just a lot of fun!!! Even though it's something I could hear when they post the live recording next month, it's still so fun to watch them all interact with one another in person. And it's a podcast that's purely about liking things, which is absolutely relevant to my interests, so I always really enjoy it for that.
SATURDAY
Geeks in Popular Culture: This had Lynne Thomas on it and was basically about what it sounds like! They talked a little about fictional representations of geeks (and Lynne talked a little about how even though geeks are in these days, we still don't get very many geek girls at all), and Hardison from Leverage was brought up, among others. They mostly talked about stuff like in high school not being open about being geeky and these days being super open about it, and if geeks being in is a temporary thing or something that will continue. I'm having trouble remembering a lot of the specifics, but it was interesting!
Autographing Session - George R.R. Martin:
So I didn't actually stand in line to get my autograph since I got ADWD signed by GRRM at the Reno WorldCon 2 years ago, but I did drop by just to get a picture of him with the Hound. It was nice because you only had to stand in line if you wanted to get something signed; if you just wanted to stand off to the side to take a quick picture, it was really simple!
What Will Replace Urban Fantasy?: I went to this mostly because I love urban fantasy (it's probably my favorite genre??? It's pretty much my go to genre when I'm not sure what I want to read), but then I was like, "Wait, will this panel even be about urban fantasy??? It's supposed to be about what's REPLACING it…" But then the panel decided like right off the bat that urban fantasy's not going anywhere, so they did spend the entire time talking about it! Which was definitely good for me, clearly. I wasn't familiar with anyone on the panel, but it was still fun. They talked a little more about like vampires/werewolves dying down and other various supernatural features becoming more popular, and wanting urban fantasy books to branch out a bit more.
Novels You Should Have Read Since Chicon 7: Elizabeth Bear was on this panel, and it was basically just about books the panelists had read in the past year and really enjoyed. It was interesting, although there were a LOT of books named, so after awhile, I had trouble remembering most of what they mentioned. My mom was typing a list of a lot of the stuff they had mentioned and what it was about so I should probably take a look at that.
Use of Language in Fantasy: I mostly went to this because Mary Robinette Kowal was on the panel (I read her book Shades of Milk and Honey, which is basically P&P + magic and I really enjoyed it) and because I enjoy languages/linguistics stuff. They talked some about differences in language to indicate different social classes or regional differences, and the difference between the challenges of trying to remain true to a time period versus the challenges of creating language for a made up world. They also spent a good amount of time talking about swearing, and stuff like how you can tell a lot about a society based on if their swear words are primarily related to religion or to bodily functions, and that whole conversation was particularly fun. It was a really informative and interesting panel.
Intricate Worlds: I went to this most because of the topic (I find worldbuilding fascinating) and because Gail Carriger was on the panel. They talked about focusing on small details, like objects and tools, in addition to larger setting-related stuff, and about how no matter how much research you do, you will get something wrong, and some reader will be an expert and will call you out on it, and that's okay. I can't remember a whole lot about this panel, but I enjoyed it.
The Howard and George Show:
This panel just consisted of GRRM and Howard Waldrop talking about their friendship and various stories about each other, since they actually met when they were teenagers and Howard was selling a comic book, and GRRM bought it from him, and they were basically pen pals for ages, and now have been friends for like 50 years. It was just really fun to listen to them chat about random things.
The Relationship Between Reader and Writer: I mostly just went to this panel because I needed to kill time, and I was expecting it to be more about like… arguments via social media and breaking the 4th wall kind of issues, but it wasn't about that at all. Instead it was about writing with the idea of a specific audience in mind, and there was some focus on both positive and negative feedback from fans. It ended up really being great. Although I think the absolute best part for me was when they were each talking about their favorite piece of fanmail they had received, and one of the writers, Michael Underwood, was like, "Mine was actually from another writer," and then talked about how Seanan McGuire had written him a letter (well, probably an email) after his 2nd book came out this year about how much she liked it and how she appreciated the diversity of the characters in the book and stuff, and he was saying that he had loved her work and admired her for years prior to that, so it was an amazing moment for him to hear she liked what he was doing, and it was really just adorable and such a sweet moment.
Satire Is What Closes on Saturday Night: I went to this because Connie Willis was on the panel, and it was basically about satire in SF books. It was at the end of a long day, so I'm almost completely blanking about what was said, but any Connie Willis panel is going to be a great panel.
SUNDAY
When Hollywood Comes Knocking - Seeing Your Baby Adapted for TV/Film: This had to do with novels being adapted for TV/film (obviously) and included Charlaine Harris (aka the writer of the books that True Blood is based on) which was fun (even though I lost interest in that series awhile ago). Steven Gould, who wrote the book that Jumper was adapted from, was also on the panel, and he ended up sitting next to my mom on our flight home to LA, which was kind of funny. Since I'm completely fascinated with all the behind the scenes TV/film stuff, the panel was fascinating to me. One of the random things I found funny was this one guy was saying that last summer, Robert Pattinson had expressed interest in his book and getting it made as a film or something, and when his agent told him Robert Pattinson was interested, he was like, "Great! …was he the vampire or the werewolf?" And then literally the week after that, the scandal about Kristen Stewart cheating on him with that director came out, and that completely killed the project because Robert Pattinson had other things going on to deal with. And I just thought that was interesting about how something so clearly completely out of the author's control could totally kill a project, and how lucky the authors are who actually get stuff made.
Should SF Consider the Aspects of the Future Rather than Predicting the Future?: The title of this panel was kind of weird and confusing, but I went to it because Catherynne Valente was on the panel, and she's really intelligent and wonderful to listen to, and I hadn't really seen her on any panels other than the Squeecast and her reading. It was basically about the fact that with technology progressing so quickly, it's difficult to even do near future SF realistically. If I'm remembering correctly (and tbh a lot of the panels have started to blend together for me), I believe they also discussed the issue of needing much greater diversity in work set in the future. Overall it was a really intelligent and fascinating panel.
Mad Science:
I went to this primarily for Seanan McGuire and Mary Robinette Kowal (although she ended up only being present for like half of the panel), and if it hadn't been for them, I might have left? I think my issue was mostly with the moderating, because, like, for me, personally, I like when the moderator holds off taking audience questions until at least the half hour mark. I think the fact that the audience can interact directly with the panel and ask questions of them is great, but like… I'm not at Worldcon to hear a bunch of random fans' opinions (I can get that on the internet plenty), I'm there for the people on the panel, so I like the people on the panel to have a chance to discuss the topic in depth first before going to the audience. Unfortunately here, the moderator took a comment from the audience at like the 5 min mark, and that set the tone for the rest of the panel, which made it less fun. I'm not even really sure what the panel focused on, like… I think they started off asking what the different between a mad scientist and a regular scientist is, and… it kind of spiraled from there. It even seemed like Mary Robinette Kowal and, especially, Seanan McGuire kind of checked out pretty quickly into the panel, and it was primarily dominated by the moderator. So yeah, I was looking forward to the panel, but it ended up being kind of disappointing.
Gender Roles in Game of Thrones: This is the one panel I actually left after about 20 min due to what they were discussing rather than because I was trying to get to something else. It actually wasn't awful or anything, but I think I was just frustrated because the people on the panel all seemed to agree too much? Everyone's favorite characters were Jon Snow, Arya, and Brienne. One woman brought up that Sansa is a very important character, but that she doesn't like her, and it took her 4 books to realize what GRRM was doing with her character (which, like. Really? I think it's pretty clear what GRRM is doing with her by the end of the first book, but maybe that's just me). So as someone who loves Sansa to death and becomes irrationally overprotective of her, I didn't love hearing that. Someone also mentioned really liking how Catelyn was handled on the show, and I was like, "……….????????????" Anyways, like I said, it wasn't really that they were saying things that enraged me, but I realized partway into the panel that I can already see these opinions in abundance on the internet, and I can also read plenty of essays about gender roles in Game of Thrones that I find much more interesting, and there was no one on the panel I was familiar with or cared about, so I split.
Forgiving History: I went to this after leaving the GOT panel early, so I did miss like the first half of it, but it seemed pretty interesting. It was about sexism/racism/other isms in older works and if they should be forgiven or how they should be treated or regarded (I mean, I did miss a good chunk of the panel, so that was just my general gist of it). When I came in, this one guy in the audience (who was a POC around my age) was talking about how he understood older works were written in certain contexts, but they can still be too much for him to read without feeling incredibly uncomfortable, which was basically exactly what I was saying in regards to Robert Silverberg talking about how works should be viewed in context, whereas I feel like some stuff is just too much for me to enjoy, even understanding the context of the period. I actually liked what audience members had to say more during this panel than the people on the panel, which is pretty much never the case. I do wish I had been present for the whole panel, though.
When Will Zombies Die?:
Even though I'm not super into zombies, I went to this because Seanan McGuire and Elizabeth Bear were on the panel. Charlaine Harris was also on it, and she was like, "I'm not really sure why I'm on this panel because I've written basically every supernatural creature BUT zombies…" which was kind of funny. (I don't have much experience with Charlaine Harris prior to this, and I did have issues with stuff in the Sookie Stackhouse books, but she was really entertaining on all the panels I saw her on.) They talked a little about how zombies are one of the last supernatural creatures where the default isn't to treat them like humans (like how vampires and werewolves tend to be treated these days), although they also mentioned how there have started to be more shifts towards humanizing zombies (obviously Warm Bodies is a pretty big example of this). There was one guy in the audience who commented about wanting to see more zombies in the old vein of like zombies due to voodoo rather than zombies due to biological reasons, and Seanan McGuire went on a bit of a rant about how she would be concerned about that due to the old voodoo zombies having a whole bunch of problematic ties to racism, and it made me love her just a little bit more. Especially because quite a few writers on random panels I had previously gone to mentioned wanting to see more fantasy with myths/supernatural creatures/etc. taken from other cultures because vampires/werewolves/etc. are overdone, and absolutely no one brought up the potentially problematic cultural appropriation aspects of doing that, and so to hear Seanan talk about it for awhile was just such a breath of fresh air. But anyways. The one other really interesting thing was when one person asked about what zombies were a metaphor for (the person was talking about how vampires are CLEARLY a metaphor for one thing and werewolves are CLEARLY a metaphor for another, which… I don't really agree with, I think they can be metaphors for multiple things, and luckily the panel also echoed that), and Elizabeth Bear talked about zombies possibly being a metaphor for mental illness, which I had never really thought about before, but as soon as she said that, I was like, "Oh, duh!" I don't feel like zombies are typically used in that way (usually it seems to be more about death and physical illness), but the idea makes a lot of sense.
YA Fantasy - We'll Always Be 13 at Heart: I went to this because YA Fantasy is definitely one of the genres I read the most from, and in general I tend to go for YA these days as opposed to adult fiction. There was no one I was really familiar with prior to this panel, but it was really great. It did end up being kind of different from what I expected, just because around the halfway point, someone in the audience asked the panel what they wanted to see more of in YA, and immediately all of them were like, "Diversity!!!" And then the rest of the panel basically focused entirely on the presence and absence of diversity in YA, and it was definitely an important discussion to be had, even though I had been kind of hoping more for discussion of specific YA Fantasy books or recommendations for books.
Urban Fantasy - Fairies Around Every Corner:
(I literally only took that picture because I found the guy on the right, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (who was nominated for a Hugo for novelette this year), super attractive. I am shallow and shameless!!!!!) I went to this because, as previously mentioned, I adore urban fantasy as a genre, and this panel also featured Seanan McGuire. It was definitely one of my favorite panels of the convention, even though I'm totally and completely blanking on any specifics now. I just love hearing people talk about urban fantasy, anyways!
The Hugos: Definitely one of my favorite parts of the week!!! I got in line like just about an hour before they let us into the room, and there were only about 10 people in front of me at most, so my mom and I had seats in one of the first rows (behind all the people actually nominated and their guests, so it's not like we were in the very front row) and had a great view of the stage. Which was good, but the lighting was such that it was pretty much impossible to take decent pictures where you could actually see who the people on stage were. The best pictures I got were:
The SF Squeecast winning their 2nd Hugo for best fancast!!!! (This is obviously a picture of the screen and not the actual stage.)
George R.R. Martin and Rory McCann (aka The Hound) accepting the Hugo for Blackwater!!!
Anyways, not going to go through every single award, but highlights: Paul Cornell as the MC/host!!!!! He was hilarious and wonderful. Blackwater winning for Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form, which was a category previously unofficially entitled the "Best Episode of Doctor Who." (Not really, but like 3 DW eps would be nominated every single year, and one of them would always win. I think this is the first non-DW episode to win in this category since 2009.) The Squeecast winning!!!!! Brandon Sanderson's novella winning the novella category (that was literally one of the only works that I had ranked 1st on my ballot that actually won)!
Redshirts winning Best Novel was kind of a positive and negative for me? I wanted Blackout to win so badly, and Redshirts was my 2nd choice, and this is now the 3RD YEAR IN A ROW where the novel I've voted for in 2nd place has won. And while I'm sure that's better than if my 5th choice had won each year, it still doesn't prevent me from feeling a little disappointed about it. But I guess I should be grateful that Redshirts won considering I hadn't even read the other 3 nominees. I was also really frustrated with the Best Novelette category just because I literally would have been thrilled if ANY OTHER NOVELETTE had won, and the one that I really didn't like was the one that won. ugh. But yeah, anyways, overall, it was still a lot of fun, and even if a lot of stuff I wanted to win didn't, enough did.
MONDAY
The Left Hand of Darkness: On Monday, the con was kind of winding down, so there wasn't much to see, but I did go to a couple things. I went to this because Jo Walton was on the panel, and The Left Hand of Darkness blew me away a bit when I read it in high school. Unfortunately that was like 8 years ago now, so I forgot a lot of details, and there were some parts of the panel I had trouble following. But it was still interesting, and it definitely made me want to reread it.
Writers, Their Fans, and Flame Wars, Oh My!: This was actually more like what I thought the panel about the relationship between authors and their audience was going to be. I was a bit nervous about this panel because the people on the panel were writers and a couple had been the target of flamewars, so I was afraid it was going to be biased against readers, but it was actually pretty great. The audience made me way more concerned than the panel, actually. This one old, white dude was like, "I think once you say 'I'm offended,' you're bullying a person!" And that comment kind of enraged me, because like, NO. YOU ARE DISTORTING WHAT BULLYING MEANS, for one, and also, it's such a bullshit way of shutting down any conversation and listening to what someone else has to say. Someone on the panel mentioned that she didn't feel like the vast majority of people actually look to be offended and that their feelings are generally hurt, and you have to be considerate of that, so her response was decent at least. There was also this one girl in the audience who was horrified that what the panel was discussing about being aware of how you come across and what you say was going to turn into self-censorship, and this one woman on the panel had mentioned that she had included a short story from a writer involving gypsies in an anthology she was editing, and I don't really know the specifics, but apparently it was offensive due to cultural appropriation and stuff, and they ended up taking it down, and this girl in the audience was very scandalized by that, somehow? And like, idk, the backlash to people being PC or, idk, just being CONSIDERATE OF OTHER CULTURES AND NOT APPROPRIATING THEM, really frustrates me. sigh. But the actual panelists were interesting and entertaining at least, for the most part.
Films and TV Shows Related to Grimm's Fairy Tales: There was no one I was familiar with on this panel, and they basically just talked about fairy tales on TV/film. They talked a little about Once Upon a Time and Grimm, as well as plenty of other random shows and movies. I kind of was tuning out for most of the panel just because at this point, I was pretty exhausted from the whole week.
So that was my WorldCon experience! I think it was definitely the best WorldCon I've been to yet. Oh, and I had one of the weirder (in a good way) taxi rides home on Monday. The driver was asking my mom and I why we had been in San Antonio, and my mom explained, and his eyes just completely lit up, and he was like "OMG, YOU GUYS ARE SO LUCKY," and then he asked who was there, and I mentioned GRRM, and he was like, "OMG!!!!!!" So we spent the 40 min ride home discussing random SF-related things, and normally after a flight, I don't want to talk to anyone, I just want to sit in silence until I can be home, but I actually didn't mind talking to him in this case.
Anyways, somehow it's September???? ugh. Now I have to start attending to real life things. On the plus side, the registration for fall classes at UCI is over for actual enrolled students, and the number of people who are registered for the Linear Algebra class I want to take actually went down from 69 to 67 over the past week, so there are a good 50+ spots still open in the class. So I shouldn't have any reason to believe I won't be able to take the class! Yay! Of course, I'm still going to be nervous and anxious about it until I'm officially registered for it.
Also, I've started actually posting book reactions to GoodReads rather than just doing the star ratings and posting reactions here. So if we're not already friends over there, let me know, because we should be! You can find me here.
WEDNESDAY
The con didn't actually start programming until Thursday, but my mom and I spent Wednesday flying out to San Antonio. I've only been to San Antonio once before, and I was like… 7 or 8 at oldest, so it's not like I remember very much. I also didn't get to see much of the city since, you know, my purpose in being there was to go to the convention, and the hotel was just across the street from the convention center:
It was kind of a different-looking convention center. It was split in half by the river, and the river level of the center was below the street center. I mean, it was a little confusing navigating the center at first, but I was able to figure it out quickly enough. And the river area was just really pretty. Most nights my mom and I would walk along the river to locate somewhere for dinner:
So yeah, even though I didn't get to see much of the actual city, it was a really nice setting, and while I would be more eager to visit Chicago (which is where Worldcon was located last year) outside of the convention setting, I thought that this was a much better set-up overall in terms of the convention than either of the previous 2 Worldcons I've been to.
THURSDAY
Coming of Age in the 60's: This panel was Connie Willis (who is one of my favorite authors of all time) and Robert Silverberg (who I haven't read, but he's one of the science fiction greats) talking about science fiction in the 60s, basically. Except it really ended up being more specifically about like the free love/drug culture and its influence on SF during that time. They also focused a bunch on one of Heinlein's works, and even though he's also a SF great, I haven't read anything of his (primarily because from what I've read about his work, I doubt it would really be my thing). I was hoping that they would discuss more like the civil rights movements and how SF during that time did or did not reflect those movements, and while I didn't think the entire panel would be about it, I was surprised that a panel about the 60s didn't discuss them at ALL. So that was disappointing. Plus, Robert Silverberg started annoying me because he was talking about how Heinlein's work is criticized now a lot of the time for being sexist and how people don't understand the context of the time and need to keep in mind what a different time it was, and it was so incredibly frustrating to me, because, like, I feel like most people who make those criticisms (and I don't know about Heinlein specifically, but just in terms of criticizing older works on the basis of sexism/racism/etc.) DO understand the context they were written in, but it's still important to point those issues out!!! EVERYTHING is problematic, I mean, even stuff like Parks and Rec has some major issues at times, but it's still okay to like that stuff!!! You just need to not pretend they don't have any issues at all, or never discuss the fact that they exist. Plus, I mean, I might recognize the times were different when something was written and the attitudes towards women were the prevailing attitudes during the time, but those issues can STILL BOTHER ME and make it uncomfortable for me to read something. And also, some of my absolute favorite films are from the 40s and 50s, and I don't have any major issues with the way women are depicted in most of those films overall. There are plenty of works pre-60s which don't have those glaring issues despite the time period in which they were produced, so it's hard for me to take the argument that "Oh, it was written in the 60s, of course it has offensive views towards women! Just ignore it!" seriously.
Anyways. I did enjoy the panel overall!!! This sounds so much more negative, when it was really just a small part of the panel that bothered me. Connie Willis is always absolutely wonderful and hilarious, and she and Robert Silverberg have been friends for decades, and they have a great rapport, so most of the panel was very entertaining.
After the panel, I took my first trip to the Dealer's Room, which is where there are a bunch of book sellers and displays of art and people selling jewelry and shirts and really just all sorts of cool stuff. Including:
And I managed to locate a copy of Chimes at Midnight, the newest book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire that I am totally obsessed with and which wasn't supposed to come out for another 5 days, so that was also awesome (and I definitely spent the rest of the day trying to read the book during any spare minute I could find).
Fantastic London: This panel included Gail Carriger (writer of the Parasol Protectorate series, which I read and mostly enjoyed, although I lost interest in the series with each additional book), Paul Cornell (writer of some of my absolute favorite Doctor Who eps of all time, Human Nature/Family of Blood and Father's Day), and Elizabeth Bear (I've only read one of her books, which I liked well enough, but she's on the SF Squeecast along with Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Catherynne Valente, and Lynne Thomas, which is basically just a podcast about them squeeing about mostly books but also random stuff as well, and which has now won 2 Hugos!!!). It was basically just about London as a setting for fantasy, and it was really interesting! I'm planning on going to London next year for Worldcon (I don't want to say it'll 100% happen because I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to be doing a year from now, but my mom's on board, so as long as I'm able to attend, I definitely plan to go), so it was fun hearing about London in general and really makes me excited to visit there. And I also fell a little in love with Paul Cornell during the panel. I mean, I was familiar with him before from the podcast and from the DW eps he's written, but just… he was talking about Jack the Ripper, and I don't completely remember what he was saying now because this was almost a week ago now. But he was discussing how people were killing prostitutes before and after Jack the Ripper and these murders just became famous because there were some similarities between them, or something? And he was talking about writing a sequel to his current novel about a string of murders in the same vein as Jack the Ripper, but all the victims are white dudes, and I was like, "Okay, I may have to read your books now."
Autograph Session - Paul Cornell: I wasn't actually planning on going to this, but my mom is currently reading his novel, London Falling, and we had nothing else to do, so we were like, "Why not go get the book signed by him?" So we did, and he was really delightful. He was so excited that my mom had a hardcover copy of his book, and he was also super adorable with this like 4-year old child who was in front of us in line (obviously with her parents, not just like… by herself). So that was a lot of fun.
Reading - Connie Willis: I went to the reading she did last year, where she read a chapter of a telepathy novel she was working on, and this time, she read a different chapter of that same book. And man, I NEED THIS BOOK. I am dying for it, ugh!!!! It's in the same vein of Bellwether (and a little To Say Nothing of the Dog, but mostly just the humor aspects rather than anything about the plot) with a rom com set in an office setting, and it's just so fun and entertaining (from the 2 chapters I've now heard, at least). While I love her time travel books, I also really adore Bellwether (I just reread it a week or two ago, actually! And it was possibly better than I remembered), and I'm glad she's doing something on that track for a change. I am kind of spoiled by some authors (like Seanan McGuire) who put out 3+ books a year, and then there are authors like Connie Willis (and, of course, George R.R. Martin) who put them out every 3-5+ years, and it's torture for me. But I think she said the novel is due in Feb. to her editor, so I'm hoping it'll be out late 2014/early 2015??? WHICH IS STILL TOO LONG FROM NOW. But I suppose it's better than last year when it was just kind of like, "Here's this book I'm working on and it'll take 3-5 years for it to come out!"
Seanan McGuire Concert:
This was great! I had just kind of randomly seen her perform at the first Worldcon I went to. While I was a huge fan of her writing already then, I hadn't ever heard her music, and I wasn't planning on going to see her perform, but there was nothing else during the time period, and I wanted something to kill time, so me and my mom went, and she's actually really great! My mom's an even bigger fan of her music than I am, which I find kind of amusing for some reason. But yeah, so anyways, we saw her again this year, and she was, again, really great. I have one of her albums and the concert reminded me that I should listen to it more.
Just a Minute: This was kind of a game show? There were 4 contestants (one of whom was Connie Willis) and Paul Cornell was the host, and basically he would give them a topic (for example, "My favorite unicorn," or "My new Hugo category") and then the first person would start and have to talk about the subject for 1 minute, but they couldn't digress from the topic at all, hesitate or say "um," or repeat any words other than the words in the subject and basic parts of speech, like "and," "the," etc. And it was just really fun and hilarious. I was impressed with any of the people who were able to speak on a topic for 30+ seconds (pretty sure no one went a full 60 seconds) without repeating a word or hesitating at all; that seems basically impossible for me.
FRIDAY
Fans and Academia: This panel had Lynne Thomas on it, who I like from the podcast I mentioned before (and she also edited an anthology about women and Doctor Who, which makes me like her). I'm not sure exactly what I expected from this panel, but it somehow didn't match my expectations? Not in a good or bad way. But anyways, most of the people on the panel were either professors or librarians at colleges, and they talked about how SF doesn't have a huge presence in academia even though it's a bit better than it used to be, but colleges don't really advertise for, like, a person who specializes in SF, they would advertise for a professor who focuses on 19th century American lit, but would want the person to also be able to teach a SF class, or being able to teach a SF class would be a bonus, or something. And they talked about how professors definitely have much greater cred if they focus on traditional subjects like Victorian lit than if they focus on SF or other genre stuff. And they also mentioned stuff about how there will be like one class maybe for something genre-related, but typically not more than that, but that something like a class about Harry Potter will get filled up by college students in a split second. And they said plenty of other stuff as well, but yeah, overall even though it wasn't quite what I thought it would be, it was very interesting, mostly just because I obviously love SF, and I also love things related to academia and college, so it was relevant to my interests.
The Romance of Train Travel: I only caught the last 15 min of this panel because I had rushed to get some lunch between the previous panel I had gone to and this one. I went to this because I found that I really adore classic movies set on trains, or at least where train travel plays a big role, such as The Lady Vanishes, so I was hoping it would be focused on train travel stories in SF, and Jo Walton was on the panel, and she won the Hugo for Best Novel last year (and I really loved her book that won, Among Others). Unfortunately it turned out that it was actually about train travel in real life, which was less interesting. But I ended up sticking around for it because what else was I going to do for 15 minutes.
Meet the New Doctor: Helen Mirren: This panel included Lynne Thomas, who tends to have good DW opinions, so I decided to risk attending it, despite my bad experiences with DW panels at Worldcons in the past. It was focused on the idea of having a female Doctor, and it was 3 girls and 1 guy, and it was super great!!! All of them agreed with no hesitation that it's far past time there should be a female Doctor, and there's zero canon basis for it not being possible. Although Lynne Thomas did qualify her support for there being a female Doctor that she would want to wait until Steven Moffat wasn't in charge, which, yeah, can't disagree with her there. My only issue with the panel is that one of the members was a girl who couldn't have been older than 14, and she had only started watching Doctor Who about a year ago (although she had caught up and seen all of New Who), and like… I just couldn't understand why she was on the panel??? In smaller conventions you'll see random fans on panels, but at Worldcon, you typically have to like… have something published or be a really prominent fan writer or something, like, you can't just be a random person. And there was nothing explained about who she was!!! It was so confusing to me. She also misinterpreted a lot of the questions and wasn't really sure what to say a lot of the time. However, I will say that it was kind of worth it that she was on the panel, because she did say one thing that I loved and thought was awesome. They had been talking about the fact that the Doctor's only supposed to be able to have 12 regenerations and we're going to be getting to the 13th Doctor in not too long, and the show will have to deal with that fact, and this girl was like, "I think after he gets to his last regeneration, he should regenerate into a woman, and then there would be 12 female Doctors after that," and the whole room applauded for that, and it was great. The panel also discussed wanting non-white Doctors. So yeah, overall it was a really wonderful panel.
Reading - Catherynne M. Valente: Some of Catherynne Valente's stuff is a bit hit or miss for me? I just feel like I don't always get it, like, Deathless was beautifully written, but I am not entirely sure what it was about; I feel like I missed a lot. But regardless of the story, I do always love her writing, and so I was interested in hearing whatever she's working on. The book she read from is one she's working on and planning on putting out next summer/fall, and it's hard to describe, but it felt very noir-esque, and it's set in the future on a different planet, and Hollywood/movies are involved, and… idk, it was different, and I wasn't completely in love with what she read, but it was interesting, and it sounds like the book could be really relevant to my interests, so I will definitely be eager to read it once it finally comes out.
"What If" Moments in History: I only caught the 2nd half of this because the Catherynne Valente reading took place during the first 30 minutes. I wasn't really familiar with anyone on the panel, but it was basically what it sounds like, where they talked about writing about points in history where something else could have happened than what actually happened and how you go about figuring out how history could play out and different things people have written about, and it was very interesting and made me wish I had been able to catch the first half.
Good Things Do Come from Small Places: This panel had Connie Willis on it, which was the main reason I wanted to go to it. She and the other panelists talked about growing up in small towns and how that affected their writing and stuff. They talked much more about their real lives and real small towns rather than fiction set in small towns (which I was kind of hoping for, just because I do really enjoy fiction set in small towns and think there should be more of it), but it turned out really great just because the panelists were all really fascinating to listen to.
Reading - George R.R. Martin:
Two years ago GRRM read an Arianne chapter from The Winds of Winter, and last year I had been hoping he would read another chapter, but instead he read something from a book he had been working on about stuff that took place in Westeros pre-series, which was interesting but definitely not as exciting as a new chapter of TWoW. So this year I was trying to keep my expectations low, but he ended up reading a new Tyrion chapter of TWoW! I didn't take notes, and I'm also not a great aural learner (I'm super visual), so I'm not going to bother with a summary (and I'm sure there are already super detailed ones out there), but it was pretty good. I mean, Tyrion's not my favorite character (well, earlier in the series he was, but not by the end of ADwD), and not much really happened in the chapter. It takes place in Mereen, and Jorah's around, and Victarion's fleet is coming in, and Dany's disappeared on one of her dragons and no one knows if she's alive, and Tyrion basically just remembers his first battle, and how that's more memorable for him than Blackwater because you always remember your first, and he remembers Shae a little, and Tysha, and 2 of Dany's dragons are flying about, and Penny's there and kisses Tyrion, and… idk, stuff like that. Mostly about the upcoming (ongoing?) battle at Mereen. But even if it wasn't my favorite chapter, it was still just fun to hear new material from the book!!!
SF Squeecast Panel: This was a live recording of the SF Squeecast podcast I mentioned before, so it included Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, Catherynne Valente, Lynne Thomas, and a special guest who I wasn't familiar with. And it was just a lot of fun!!! Even though it's something I could hear when they post the live recording next month, it's still so fun to watch them all interact with one another in person. And it's a podcast that's purely about liking things, which is absolutely relevant to my interests, so I always really enjoy it for that.
SATURDAY
Geeks in Popular Culture: This had Lynne Thomas on it and was basically about what it sounds like! They talked a little about fictional representations of geeks (and Lynne talked a little about how even though geeks are in these days, we still don't get very many geek girls at all), and Hardison from Leverage was brought up, among others. They mostly talked about stuff like in high school not being open about being geeky and these days being super open about it, and if geeks being in is a temporary thing or something that will continue. I'm having trouble remembering a lot of the specifics, but it was interesting!
Autographing Session - George R.R. Martin:
So I didn't actually stand in line to get my autograph since I got ADWD signed by GRRM at the Reno WorldCon 2 years ago, but I did drop by just to get a picture of him with the Hound. It was nice because you only had to stand in line if you wanted to get something signed; if you just wanted to stand off to the side to take a quick picture, it was really simple!
What Will Replace Urban Fantasy?: I went to this mostly because I love urban fantasy (it's probably my favorite genre??? It's pretty much my go to genre when I'm not sure what I want to read), but then I was like, "Wait, will this panel even be about urban fantasy??? It's supposed to be about what's REPLACING it…" But then the panel decided like right off the bat that urban fantasy's not going anywhere, so they did spend the entire time talking about it! Which was definitely good for me, clearly. I wasn't familiar with anyone on the panel, but it was still fun. They talked a little more about like vampires/werewolves dying down and other various supernatural features becoming more popular, and wanting urban fantasy books to branch out a bit more.
Novels You Should Have Read Since Chicon 7: Elizabeth Bear was on this panel, and it was basically just about books the panelists had read in the past year and really enjoyed. It was interesting, although there were a LOT of books named, so after awhile, I had trouble remembering most of what they mentioned. My mom was typing a list of a lot of the stuff they had mentioned and what it was about so I should probably take a look at that.
Use of Language in Fantasy: I mostly went to this because Mary Robinette Kowal was on the panel (I read her book Shades of Milk and Honey, which is basically P&P + magic and I really enjoyed it) and because I enjoy languages/linguistics stuff. They talked some about differences in language to indicate different social classes or regional differences, and the difference between the challenges of trying to remain true to a time period versus the challenges of creating language for a made up world. They also spent a good amount of time talking about swearing, and stuff like how you can tell a lot about a society based on if their swear words are primarily related to religion or to bodily functions, and that whole conversation was particularly fun. It was a really informative and interesting panel.
Intricate Worlds: I went to this most because of the topic (I find worldbuilding fascinating) and because Gail Carriger was on the panel. They talked about focusing on small details, like objects and tools, in addition to larger setting-related stuff, and about how no matter how much research you do, you will get something wrong, and some reader will be an expert and will call you out on it, and that's okay. I can't remember a whole lot about this panel, but I enjoyed it.
The Howard and George Show:
This panel just consisted of GRRM and Howard Waldrop talking about their friendship and various stories about each other, since they actually met when they were teenagers and Howard was selling a comic book, and GRRM bought it from him, and they were basically pen pals for ages, and now have been friends for like 50 years. It was just really fun to listen to them chat about random things.
The Relationship Between Reader and Writer: I mostly just went to this panel because I needed to kill time, and I was expecting it to be more about like… arguments via social media and breaking the 4th wall kind of issues, but it wasn't about that at all. Instead it was about writing with the idea of a specific audience in mind, and there was some focus on both positive and negative feedback from fans. It ended up really being great. Although I think the absolute best part for me was when they were each talking about their favorite piece of fanmail they had received, and one of the writers, Michael Underwood, was like, "Mine was actually from another writer," and then talked about how Seanan McGuire had written him a letter (well, probably an email) after his 2nd book came out this year about how much she liked it and how she appreciated the diversity of the characters in the book and stuff, and he was saying that he had loved her work and admired her for years prior to that, so it was an amazing moment for him to hear she liked what he was doing, and it was really just adorable and such a sweet moment.
Satire Is What Closes on Saturday Night: I went to this because Connie Willis was on the panel, and it was basically about satire in SF books. It was at the end of a long day, so I'm almost completely blanking about what was said, but any Connie Willis panel is going to be a great panel.
SUNDAY
When Hollywood Comes Knocking - Seeing Your Baby Adapted for TV/Film: This had to do with novels being adapted for TV/film (obviously) and included Charlaine Harris (aka the writer of the books that True Blood is based on) which was fun (even though I lost interest in that series awhile ago). Steven Gould, who wrote the book that Jumper was adapted from, was also on the panel, and he ended up sitting next to my mom on our flight home to LA, which was kind of funny. Since I'm completely fascinated with all the behind the scenes TV/film stuff, the panel was fascinating to me. One of the random things I found funny was this one guy was saying that last summer, Robert Pattinson had expressed interest in his book and getting it made as a film or something, and when his agent told him Robert Pattinson was interested, he was like, "Great! …was he the vampire or the werewolf?" And then literally the week after that, the scandal about Kristen Stewart cheating on him with that director came out, and that completely killed the project because Robert Pattinson had other things going on to deal with. And I just thought that was interesting about how something so clearly completely out of the author's control could totally kill a project, and how lucky the authors are who actually get stuff made.
Should SF Consider the Aspects of the Future Rather than Predicting the Future?: The title of this panel was kind of weird and confusing, but I went to it because Catherynne Valente was on the panel, and she's really intelligent and wonderful to listen to, and I hadn't really seen her on any panels other than the Squeecast and her reading. It was basically about the fact that with technology progressing so quickly, it's difficult to even do near future SF realistically. If I'm remembering correctly (and tbh a lot of the panels have started to blend together for me), I believe they also discussed the issue of needing much greater diversity in work set in the future. Overall it was a really intelligent and fascinating panel.
Mad Science:
I went to this primarily for Seanan McGuire and Mary Robinette Kowal (although she ended up only being present for like half of the panel), and if it hadn't been for them, I might have left? I think my issue was mostly with the moderating, because, like, for me, personally, I like when the moderator holds off taking audience questions until at least the half hour mark. I think the fact that the audience can interact directly with the panel and ask questions of them is great, but like… I'm not at Worldcon to hear a bunch of random fans' opinions (I can get that on the internet plenty), I'm there for the people on the panel, so I like the people on the panel to have a chance to discuss the topic in depth first before going to the audience. Unfortunately here, the moderator took a comment from the audience at like the 5 min mark, and that set the tone for the rest of the panel, which made it less fun. I'm not even really sure what the panel focused on, like… I think they started off asking what the different between a mad scientist and a regular scientist is, and… it kind of spiraled from there. It even seemed like Mary Robinette Kowal and, especially, Seanan McGuire kind of checked out pretty quickly into the panel, and it was primarily dominated by the moderator. So yeah, I was looking forward to the panel, but it ended up being kind of disappointing.
Gender Roles in Game of Thrones: This is the one panel I actually left after about 20 min due to what they were discussing rather than because I was trying to get to something else. It actually wasn't awful or anything, but I think I was just frustrated because the people on the panel all seemed to agree too much? Everyone's favorite characters were Jon Snow, Arya, and Brienne. One woman brought up that Sansa is a very important character, but that she doesn't like her, and it took her 4 books to realize what GRRM was doing with her character (which, like. Really? I think it's pretty clear what GRRM is doing with her by the end of the first book, but maybe that's just me). So as someone who loves Sansa to death and becomes irrationally overprotective of her, I didn't love hearing that. Someone also mentioned really liking how Catelyn was handled on the show, and I was like, "……….????????????" Anyways, like I said, it wasn't really that they were saying things that enraged me, but I realized partway into the panel that I can already see these opinions in abundance on the internet, and I can also read plenty of essays about gender roles in Game of Thrones that I find much more interesting, and there was no one on the panel I was familiar with or cared about, so I split.
Forgiving History: I went to this after leaving the GOT panel early, so I did miss like the first half of it, but it seemed pretty interesting. It was about sexism/racism/other isms in older works and if they should be forgiven or how they should be treated or regarded (I mean, I did miss a good chunk of the panel, so that was just my general gist of it). When I came in, this one guy in the audience (who was a POC around my age) was talking about how he understood older works were written in certain contexts, but they can still be too much for him to read without feeling incredibly uncomfortable, which was basically exactly what I was saying in regards to Robert Silverberg talking about how works should be viewed in context, whereas I feel like some stuff is just too much for me to enjoy, even understanding the context of the period. I actually liked what audience members had to say more during this panel than the people on the panel, which is pretty much never the case. I do wish I had been present for the whole panel, though.
When Will Zombies Die?:
Even though I'm not super into zombies, I went to this because Seanan McGuire and Elizabeth Bear were on the panel. Charlaine Harris was also on it, and she was like, "I'm not really sure why I'm on this panel because I've written basically every supernatural creature BUT zombies…" which was kind of funny. (I don't have much experience with Charlaine Harris prior to this, and I did have issues with stuff in the Sookie Stackhouse books, but she was really entertaining on all the panels I saw her on.) They talked a little about how zombies are one of the last supernatural creatures where the default isn't to treat them like humans (like how vampires and werewolves tend to be treated these days), although they also mentioned how there have started to be more shifts towards humanizing zombies (obviously Warm Bodies is a pretty big example of this). There was one guy in the audience who commented about wanting to see more zombies in the old vein of like zombies due to voodoo rather than zombies due to biological reasons, and Seanan McGuire went on a bit of a rant about how she would be concerned about that due to the old voodoo zombies having a whole bunch of problematic ties to racism, and it made me love her just a little bit more. Especially because quite a few writers on random panels I had previously gone to mentioned wanting to see more fantasy with myths/supernatural creatures/etc. taken from other cultures because vampires/werewolves/etc. are overdone, and absolutely no one brought up the potentially problematic cultural appropriation aspects of doing that, and so to hear Seanan talk about it for awhile was just such a breath of fresh air. But anyways. The one other really interesting thing was when one person asked about what zombies were a metaphor for (the person was talking about how vampires are CLEARLY a metaphor for one thing and werewolves are CLEARLY a metaphor for another, which… I don't really agree with, I think they can be metaphors for multiple things, and luckily the panel also echoed that), and Elizabeth Bear talked about zombies possibly being a metaphor for mental illness, which I had never really thought about before, but as soon as she said that, I was like, "Oh, duh!" I don't feel like zombies are typically used in that way (usually it seems to be more about death and physical illness), but the idea makes a lot of sense.
YA Fantasy - We'll Always Be 13 at Heart: I went to this because YA Fantasy is definitely one of the genres I read the most from, and in general I tend to go for YA these days as opposed to adult fiction. There was no one I was really familiar with prior to this panel, but it was really great. It did end up being kind of different from what I expected, just because around the halfway point, someone in the audience asked the panel what they wanted to see more of in YA, and immediately all of them were like, "Diversity!!!" And then the rest of the panel basically focused entirely on the presence and absence of diversity in YA, and it was definitely an important discussion to be had, even though I had been kind of hoping more for discussion of specific YA Fantasy books or recommendations for books.
Urban Fantasy - Fairies Around Every Corner:
(I literally only took that picture because I found the guy on the right, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (who was nominated for a Hugo for novelette this year), super attractive. I am shallow and shameless!!!!!) I went to this because, as previously mentioned, I adore urban fantasy as a genre, and this panel also featured Seanan McGuire. It was definitely one of my favorite panels of the convention, even though I'm totally and completely blanking on any specifics now. I just love hearing people talk about urban fantasy, anyways!
The Hugos: Definitely one of my favorite parts of the week!!! I got in line like just about an hour before they let us into the room, and there were only about 10 people in front of me at most, so my mom and I had seats in one of the first rows (behind all the people actually nominated and their guests, so it's not like we were in the very front row) and had a great view of the stage. Which was good, but the lighting was such that it was pretty much impossible to take decent pictures where you could actually see who the people on stage were. The best pictures I got were:
The SF Squeecast winning their 2nd Hugo for best fancast!!!! (This is obviously a picture of the screen and not the actual stage.)
George R.R. Martin and Rory McCann (aka The Hound) accepting the Hugo for Blackwater!!!
Anyways, not going to go through every single award, but highlights: Paul Cornell as the MC/host!!!!! He was hilarious and wonderful. Blackwater winning for Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form, which was a category previously unofficially entitled the "Best Episode of Doctor Who." (Not really, but like 3 DW eps would be nominated every single year, and one of them would always win. I think this is the first non-DW episode to win in this category since 2009.) The Squeecast winning!!!!! Brandon Sanderson's novella winning the novella category (that was literally one of the only works that I had ranked 1st on my ballot that actually won)!
Redshirts winning Best Novel was kind of a positive and negative for me? I wanted Blackout to win so badly, and Redshirts was my 2nd choice, and this is now the 3RD YEAR IN A ROW where the novel I've voted for in 2nd place has won. And while I'm sure that's better than if my 5th choice had won each year, it still doesn't prevent me from feeling a little disappointed about it. But I guess I should be grateful that Redshirts won considering I hadn't even read the other 3 nominees. I was also really frustrated with the Best Novelette category just because I literally would have been thrilled if ANY OTHER NOVELETTE had won, and the one that I really didn't like was the one that won. ugh. But yeah, anyways, overall, it was still a lot of fun, and even if a lot of stuff I wanted to win didn't, enough did.
MONDAY
The Left Hand of Darkness: On Monday, the con was kind of winding down, so there wasn't much to see, but I did go to a couple things. I went to this because Jo Walton was on the panel, and The Left Hand of Darkness blew me away a bit when I read it in high school. Unfortunately that was like 8 years ago now, so I forgot a lot of details, and there were some parts of the panel I had trouble following. But it was still interesting, and it definitely made me want to reread it.
Writers, Their Fans, and Flame Wars, Oh My!: This was actually more like what I thought the panel about the relationship between authors and their audience was going to be. I was a bit nervous about this panel because the people on the panel were writers and a couple had been the target of flamewars, so I was afraid it was going to be biased against readers, but it was actually pretty great. The audience made me way more concerned than the panel, actually. This one old, white dude was like, "I think once you say 'I'm offended,' you're bullying a person!" And that comment kind of enraged me, because like, NO. YOU ARE DISTORTING WHAT BULLYING MEANS, for one, and also, it's such a bullshit way of shutting down any conversation and listening to what someone else has to say. Someone on the panel mentioned that she didn't feel like the vast majority of people actually look to be offended and that their feelings are generally hurt, and you have to be considerate of that, so her response was decent at least. There was also this one girl in the audience who was horrified that what the panel was discussing about being aware of how you come across and what you say was going to turn into self-censorship, and this one woman on the panel had mentioned that she had included a short story from a writer involving gypsies in an anthology she was editing, and I don't really know the specifics, but apparently it was offensive due to cultural appropriation and stuff, and they ended up taking it down, and this girl in the audience was very scandalized by that, somehow? And like, idk, the backlash to people being PC or, idk, just being CONSIDERATE OF OTHER CULTURES AND NOT APPROPRIATING THEM, really frustrates me. sigh. But the actual panelists were interesting and entertaining at least, for the most part.
Films and TV Shows Related to Grimm's Fairy Tales: There was no one I was familiar with on this panel, and they basically just talked about fairy tales on TV/film. They talked a little about Once Upon a Time and Grimm, as well as plenty of other random shows and movies. I kind of was tuning out for most of the panel just because at this point, I was pretty exhausted from the whole week.
So that was my WorldCon experience! I think it was definitely the best WorldCon I've been to yet. Oh, and I had one of the weirder (in a good way) taxi rides home on Monday. The driver was asking my mom and I why we had been in San Antonio, and my mom explained, and his eyes just completely lit up, and he was like "OMG, YOU GUYS ARE SO LUCKY," and then he asked who was there, and I mentioned GRRM, and he was like, "OMG!!!!!!" So we spent the 40 min ride home discussing random SF-related things, and normally after a flight, I don't want to talk to anyone, I just want to sit in silence until I can be home, but I actually didn't mind talking to him in this case.
Anyways, somehow it's September???? ugh. Now I have to start attending to real life things. On the plus side, the registration for fall classes at UCI is over for actual enrolled students, and the number of people who are registered for the Linear Algebra class I want to take actually went down from 69 to 67 over the past week, so there are a good 50+ spots still open in the class. So I shouldn't have any reason to believe I won't be able to take the class! Yay! Of course, I'm still going to be nervous and anxious about it until I'm officially registered for it.
Also, I've started actually posting book reactions to GoodReads rather than just doing the star ratings and posting reactions here. So if we're not already friends over there, let me know, because we should be! You can find me here.