My LonCon3 Schedule
Imagining Fantasy Lands: The Status Quo Does Not Need Worldbuilding
Friday 16:30 - 18:00, Capital Suite 11 (ExCeL)
Mary Anne Mohanraj (M), Tobias Buckell, Kate Elliott, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Ellen Kushner
Fantasy world-building sometimes comes under fire for its pedantic attention to detail at the expense of pacing or prose style. Do descriptive passages clog up the narrative needlessly, when reader imagination should be filling in the gaps? Where does that leave the landscapes and cultures that are less well represented in the Western genre: can world-building be a tool in subverting reader expectations that would otherwise default to pseudo-medieval Euro-esque? If fantasy is about defamiliarising the familiar, how important is material culture - buildings, furnishings, tools, the organisation of social and commercial space - in creating a fantasy world?
Note: the title of this panel is a reference to Kate Elliott's essay:
http://www.kateelliott.com/wordpress/index.php/2013/09/the-status-quo-does-not-need-world-building/
Reading: Ellen Kushner
Friday 18:00 - 18:30, London Suite 1 (ExCeL)
:25 - what shall I read?? Something old & well-loved . . . or the WIP?
Translation-Wish, Translation-Obstacles
Friday, Capital Suite 6 (Level 3), 8pm - 9pm
Tags: Literature, World SF, Non-Anglophone
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Gili Bar-Hillel, Fabio Fernandes, Nene Ormes, Lionel Davoust,Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo
Many of us have read work in our own languages that we would love to propose to Anglophone publishers. But how to fund a rough translation of such work? The Interstitial Arts Foundation is looking to create a new initiative to bring translators together with national and international funders to create a way to make something happen!
- I'm not on this one, but I am its Faerie Godmother, so I'll be there! If you're interested in the Interstitial Arts Foundation, this will be a good time to meet some people & talk about it, too.
Autographing 2 - Ellen Kushner
Saturday 13:30 - 15:00, Autographing Space (ExCeL)
o god, please come and hang out with me!!!! No one is going to want that many autographs, and I am honor bound to sit there for an hour and a half, feeling like an idiot and staring off into space or trying to look busy! A great time to come say Hi, introduce yourself, offer me small but precious gifts, or just sit around talking about books and shoes. I will be a sitting duck.
Literary Beer
Saturday 17:00 - 18:00, The Bar (ExCeL)
All of the Above, but with Beer. YOU HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS ONE IN ADVANCE (AT THE CON).
Imagining the City
Saturday 19:00 - 20:00, Capital Suite 7+12 (ExCeL)
Science fiction and fantasy are filled with memorable imaginary cities, from Minas Tirith to New Crobuzon, Trantor to Vorbarr Sultana. How do writers imagine their cities? What are the advantages and disadvantages of creating a city from scratch versus using one or more existing models? And are there differences in how SF and fantasy approach this task?
- Cannot wait for this one!!
You've Ruined It For Me
Sunday 19:00 - 20:00, Capital Suite 3 (ExCeL)
Screen adaptations of genre works are big business, and fan conversation about them often revolves around issues of accuracy and deviation. But what are the other discussions we could be having about the relationship between novel and film? How does our experience of an adaptation shape the way we read a particular book, whether for the first time or on a re-read? Is it possible, any more, to talk about The Lord of the Rings without reference to Peter Jackson? Are 'book purists' too defensive against what is, after all, simply someone else's reading of a work with a budget, or do blockbuster adaptations carry a popular cultural weight that makes them hard to escape?
[MODERATOR! 'Cause what the hell do I know about movies? But there is The SwordsmanWhose Name was Not Death….. Do you think the play just ruined the book?]