(no subject)
Ach, forgot to post the Sunday part of my Arisia report. Bullet points:
*The woman who checked my coat was wearing a shirt that read: "I beat the Kama Sutra. The last guy was hard."
*Checked out a panel called The Crossroads of Magic and Science. It was an interesting panel that covered some cool ideas, but I was a tad dismayed that the panel was all white men. Maybe they were the only panelists who could be found on Arisia's budget? But having spent all of Saturday at panels filled with women and/or POC, I found the Wall of White Dudes kinda jarring. That said, they had some really interesting things to say about science vs magic, magic as science, science helped by magic, magic aided by tech, science mistaken for magic...etc. Got some book recs, of course (if anyone wants to see the recs from any of the panels I've mentioned, let me know).
*Faeries of Color: tales of the Fae beyond Europe. I'm wary of Campbellian attempts to unite things from a variety of cultures under the umbrella of a single (Western) word or concept: fairies, dragons, witches, etc. While a broad variety of cultures do seem to have supernatural beings associated with nature, are they all similar enough to be called the same thing? The moderator (who had a folklore degree) actually asked that question, which was cool. I had to leave halfway through, because I really had to pee.
*Played a fun party card game called Shenanigans!, in which you are given cards with items and story components, and must make up tales of your piratey adventures.
*Kept my eyes peeled, but I never did find the Wiccans I was looking for.
*Wandered around the dealers' floor again, and stumbled across this bit of fail. It's a D&D guide for girls, who are too stupid feminine to understand the PHB. Unlike those icky dark D&D manuals, this one has pale pink pages and hot-pink details to hold our flighty, girly attention.
*Evolution of the Female Protagonist and Antagonist. The moderator opened by opining that LoTR was all about the guys (true), and then wondered what it would have been like from Arwen's point of view, which I kinda thought was the wrong question. Or rather, instead of wondering how already-established and rather weak woman characters would tell the stories they're in, I would like to know why all the interesting parts in a story like LoTR go to men. Why wasn't a woman the Steward of Gondor? Why didn't Rosie Cotton carry the Ring to Mordor? The panel did kinda get at this question later, but there was much discussion of how the modern kick-ass heroine is too "manly," or that that kind of character is doing "men's stuff." But are those things inherently masculine, and if so, should that make them undesirable roles for woman characters? Complicated questions that the panel didn't address in the half hour I was there (I ended up walking out because a panelist described an insufficiently masculine man character as "faggy". Homophobia and rigid gender roles FTL).
*Women and Sci-Fi was supposed to be about women in publishing, but the panelists were meh. The moderator opened with some interesting stats and anecdotes; but on the flip side, none of them knew why the panel precis referred to "women writers being compared to vegetables", and one panelist insisted that she doesn't notice the gender of writers when she reads and therefore the Hugo voters don't, either. I ended up buying a book from one of the panelists, though, because she's a co-religionist of mine and so is her main character. Also, I kinda know her from LJ-land.
*We passed on buying memberships for next year, because Daniel was sure we'd be able to get them online at the year-in-advance price. He was wrong, but when they do become available they should only be $35, so that's OK.
*The woman who checked my coat was wearing a shirt that read: "I beat the Kama Sutra. The last guy was hard."
*Checked out a panel called The Crossroads of Magic and Science. It was an interesting panel that covered some cool ideas, but I was a tad dismayed that the panel was all white men. Maybe they were the only panelists who could be found on Arisia's budget? But having spent all of Saturday at panels filled with women and/or POC, I found the Wall of White Dudes kinda jarring. That said, they had some really interesting things to say about science vs magic, magic as science, science helped by magic, magic aided by tech, science mistaken for magic...etc. Got some book recs, of course (if anyone wants to see the recs from any of the panels I've mentioned, let me know).
*Faeries of Color: tales of the Fae beyond Europe. I'm wary of Campbellian attempts to unite things from a variety of cultures under the umbrella of a single (Western) word or concept: fairies, dragons, witches, etc. While a broad variety of cultures do seem to have supernatural beings associated with nature, are they all similar enough to be called the same thing? The moderator (who had a folklore degree) actually asked that question, which was cool. I had to leave halfway through, because I really had to pee.
*Played a fun party card game called Shenanigans!, in which you are given cards with items and story components, and must make up tales of your piratey adventures.
*Kept my eyes peeled, but I never did find the Wiccans I was looking for.
*Wandered around the dealers' floor again, and stumbled across this bit of fail. It's a D&D guide for girls, who are too stupid feminine to understand the PHB. Unlike those icky dark D&D manuals, this one has pale pink pages and hot-pink details to hold our flighty, girly attention.
*Evolution of the Female Protagonist and Antagonist. The moderator opened by opining that LoTR was all about the guys (true), and then wondered what it would have been like from Arwen's point of view, which I kinda thought was the wrong question. Or rather, instead of wondering how already-established and rather weak woman characters would tell the stories they're in, I would like to know why all the interesting parts in a story like LoTR go to men. Why wasn't a woman the Steward of Gondor? Why didn't Rosie Cotton carry the Ring to Mordor? The panel did kinda get at this question later, but there was much discussion of how the modern kick-ass heroine is too "manly," or that that kind of character is doing "men's stuff." But are those things inherently masculine, and if so, should that make them undesirable roles for woman characters? Complicated questions that the panel didn't address in the half hour I was there (I ended up walking out because a panelist described an insufficiently masculine man character as "faggy". Homophobia and rigid gender roles FTL).
*Women and Sci-Fi was supposed to be about women in publishing, but the panelists were meh. The moderator opened with some interesting stats and anecdotes; but on the flip side, none of them knew why the panel precis referred to "women writers being compared to vegetables", and one panelist insisted that she doesn't notice the gender of writers when she reads and therefore the Hugo voters don't, either. I ended up buying a book from one of the panelists, though, because she's a co-religionist of mine and so is her main character. Also, I kinda know her from LJ-land.
*We passed on buying memberships for next year, because Daniel was sure we'd be able to get them online at the year-in-advance price. He was wrong, but when they do become available they should only be $35, so that's OK.