My WorldCon Schedule
It's almost that time! Convention Reporter is bookmarking the schedules of those of us who will be posting reports and pictures from Anticipation/the 67th WorldCon in Montréal, so I wanted to post my revised and finalized schedule for the con (which includes a few small changes from the previous version I posted):
Saturday, August 7
3pm: Autograph Session
10pm: "It's a Disaster" (Disaster movies reflect their times. From nuclear war to terrorism to eco-catastrophe, what do these movies tell us about ourselves? Do they help us deal with our fears or just make things worse?)
Media Track, Session 263, Location P-513C, 1 hr
Panelists: Daniel Grotta, Laurie Mann, H. G. Stratmann, Me
Sunday, August 8
2pm: "Eh?: The Revival of Audio SF" (One of this year's Hugo nominees for dramatic presentation is a nine hour audiobook. Are fans ready for an audio SF revival? Should these be acted out or simply dramatic readings? Is audio SF ready for the 21st century?)
Media Track, Session 332, P-524B, 1.5 hrs
Panelists: Joe Mahoney, Nicki Lynch, Robert Wiersema, Tobias Buckell, Me
5pm: "Apocalypse and Dystopia"
Scholarly Track, Session 646, P-523B, 1.5 hrs
My independent presentation: "Anticipating Worlds Gone Wrong: Contemporary Young Adult Dystopias”
Other presentations in this session are by Allan Weiss, John J. Pierce, and Thom Bryce
Monday, August 9
12:30pm: "Hard SF: Is it What You Do, or How You Do It?" [Many critics - including David Hartwell - argue that hard SF is as much defined by an attitude (how you depict science in an SF story) rather than to do with detailed depiction of science. So a story like Ted Chiang's "Tower of Babylon" could be hard SF whilst being based in a completely imaginary scientific foundation. Is this a useful way to see things?]
Literature in English Track, Session 588, P-511A, 1.5 hrs
Panelists: Marc Schirmeister, Joël Champetier, Gabrielle Harbowy, Me
I will be around for the entire con, and I'll certainly be attending the Hugo Awards and Prometheus Awards ceremonies, among other things. Stay tuned for more!
"What is the use in not actively engaging life? It passes anyhow."
- Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time