Home from Mythcon
This was such a splendid trip, the only difficulty being remembering yoga breathing while ten thousand feet up. Six thousand (which I understand is Colorado Springs' elevation) was okay--needing occasional conscious deep breathing, but I mostly used the stairs, as programming only went up four flights.
That aside, the drive to and from was excellent, because I had the perfect companions for the drive, writer Rosamund Hodge (Cruel Beauty, Crimson Unbound) and her mother, a textile artist and also a writer--out of all the True Thomas books, ballads, and stories I've read I still like hers the best. Having one other driver takes the stress out of long hours on the road. The barren California geography was too sere to be beautiful though it was interesting, but from Nevada on it gradually becomes more interesting and spectacular. My only regret is that we did not have time to cruise through some of the national parks.
The reverse trip was equally nice, the car air conditioning mitigating the triple digit temps. On the way back we listened to Sundown by Sassafrass, watching the dramatic scenery unfold as if it had been torn apart in Ragnaroc as the singers wove the story, and the central tragedy--Odin vs. Loki--around us.
Speaking of Sassafrass, the two members who'd come to Mythcon, their performance names Trickster and King, generously agreed to add to their last concert Monday morning the anthem to space travel "Somebody Will." If you listen to it, especially as sung that morning, you'd understand the emotional as well as physical tax of performing that twice, because they were also giving it at the closing ceremonies, which we missed because we did not want to spend another night at ten thousand feet.
The Mythopoeic Society has its own anthems sun every year, and I like those, but this song so powerfully expressed the sense of wonder that draws me to fantasy (and science fiction) with lines like:
But if I love my fantasy worlds
It’s not fantasy love that I feel.
And so much more I feel for this
The world that created them,
World we create with them,
One chance to make them all real.
Those don't encapsulate the poignancy of clear-eyed effort, even sacrifice, to make things better for those who come after, that to me suggests the best human endeavor.
Equally excellent and providing hours of good conversation was Jo Walton's GOH talk, in which she explored how to get that fantasy element into a story to resonate as real. After the talk a few of us gathered around the (bare, thank goodness) fireplace to further talk about writing, world building, and related subjects. The next morning I talked to one of the academics who said that the talk provided a fascinating insight into the writer part of the fiction equation: how they do it, what they are thinking. I pointed out that he was getting a sliver of master class, that most of us are still struggling to make these connections and bring that awareness to our efforts.
Altogether a wonderful weekend, full of good conversations, ideas, music, and fun. And beautiful scenery framing it all.
That aside, the drive to and from was excellent, because I had the perfect companions for the drive, writer Rosamund Hodge (Cruel Beauty, Crimson Unbound) and her mother, a textile artist and also a writer--out of all the True Thomas books, ballads, and stories I've read I still like hers the best. Having one other driver takes the stress out of long hours on the road. The barren California geography was too sere to be beautiful though it was interesting, but from Nevada on it gradually becomes more interesting and spectacular. My only regret is that we did not have time to cruise through some of the national parks.
The reverse trip was equally nice, the car air conditioning mitigating the triple digit temps. On the way back we listened to Sundown by Sassafrass, watching the dramatic scenery unfold as if it had been torn apart in Ragnaroc as the singers wove the story, and the central tragedy--Odin vs. Loki--around us.
Speaking of Sassafrass, the two members who'd come to Mythcon, their performance names Trickster and King, generously agreed to add to their last concert Monday morning the anthem to space travel "Somebody Will." If you listen to it, especially as sung that morning, you'd understand the emotional as well as physical tax of performing that twice, because they were also giving it at the closing ceremonies, which we missed because we did not want to spend another night at ten thousand feet.
The Mythopoeic Society has its own anthems sun every year, and I like those, but this song so powerfully expressed the sense of wonder that draws me to fantasy (and science fiction) with lines like:
But if I love my fantasy worlds
It’s not fantasy love that I feel.
And so much more I feel for this
The world that created them,
World we create with them,
One chance to make them all real.
Those don't encapsulate the poignancy of clear-eyed effort, even sacrifice, to make things better for those who come after, that to me suggests the best human endeavor.
Equally excellent and providing hours of good conversation was Jo Walton's GOH talk, in which she explored how to get that fantasy element into a story to resonate as real. After the talk a few of us gathered around the (bare, thank goodness) fireplace to further talk about writing, world building, and related subjects. The next morning I talked to one of the academics who said that the talk provided a fascinating insight into the writer part of the fiction equation: how they do it, what they are thinking. I pointed out that he was getting a sliver of master class, that most of us are still struggling to make these connections and bring that awareness to our efforts.
Altogether a wonderful weekend, full of good conversations, ideas, music, and fun. And beautiful scenery framing it all.