Wiscon, continued
Went to bed really early and exhausted last night, woke up at insane-o-clock this morning but realised I had got in a good few hours kip, so could have been worse.
Mad social whirl today - (breakfast w Timmi Duchamp, lunch w coffeeandink and loligo, dinner w wordweaverlynn, and various other less scheduled encounters.
The panel 'Strong or Stroppy? Annoyingly Feisty Female Protagonists', which I was on, was well attended and very lively though alas (sorry sartorias) I was too involved to remember all the exaxt details and thevarious tangents that arose. I did have to explain the British term 'stroppy', and the general feeling was that stroppy per se was not a problem if it had something to back it up or was used strategically/self-awarely, but that feisty is irredeemable as a quality DO NOT WANT. Is part of the problem about age - protags of paranormal romance tending to be in early 20s? Thrillers/mysteries seem to manage tough but not feisty heroines better - influence of the romance element in paranormal romance? Problems of gender stereotyping.
Attended the panel 'Navigating the Id Vortex', which was excellent, but even though I was not contributing to discussion, would find it hard to summarise.
Did a stint in the Green Room.
Was on the 'Retrospective Tiptrees' panel, which raised interesting questions about what people put on lists and whether they tend to stick to well-known precursors/feminist sf canonical works, whether one would select retrospective nominees for what they were doing in their particular historical context or for still being relevant, the value of knowing tradition and that certain tropes have been already done (even if they are worth doing over in different historical contexts), whether the parameters of the Tiptree vis a vis gender are unnecessarily narrow and constraining, isn't Mitchison wonderful (ok, that was me), what about historical novels as way of finding alternative approaches to gender (Kristin Lavransdottir), suggestions of works going back over several centuries that one might want to include... however, rather small audience, one panel member dropped out, a certain late afternoon tiredness, and this all rather ran out of energy.
Is tired.