Worldcon 2009 - Report
So! I neglected to mention this, but, uh, I spent the last five days at WorldCon! Yay! *sheepish*
On the whole, I had a blast. It was a real jolt to see people talking about fannish stuff in real life - to sit there while a literal Greybeard discussed Ray/Fraser slash in a dignified British accent was almost more squee than I could bear! That particular panel was on Friday night - Friday was probably one of the best nights of the con, to be honest, when everything was shiny and new and I hadn’t yet developed any cynicism about the panels yet.
Another good one from Friday night was the Doctor Who panel, “Overpaid, Oversexed, and In Our Time Zone”. The title makes it sound like a gripe session, but in reality it was really just a whole lot of squee, and interesting discussion on how Doctor Who. Paul Cornell, one of the writers, was a panellist, and he provided a lot of interesting insight. Unfortunately, he also expressed, in the course of trying to explain his view on why R.T.D. is making the Doctor more sexual, that all “real people” have sexual urges. Seated there, as I was, beside my closest and co-incidentally asexual| good friend
sophia_sol, this did not fly. Sophia tried to call him on it, and he sort of backpedalled and went “um, er” a lot but didn’t really retract the statement. *sigh*
As time went on and cynicism rose up in tandem with exhaustion (more on this later), I started going to a lot less panels, but some of my favourites remained:
The Ethics of Dollhouse. Again, partially for the squee factor (wait, people NOT me and my dorky dorm-mates actually talk about this stuff?) but also because it was actually quite an interesting conversation at times, particularly when the conversation turned to the question of who holds moral responsibility for the actions of the dolls? The doll themselves, who gave the Dollhouse a blank check for their body? The customer, who requests the action? Dewitt, who authorises it? Topher, who programs the personality? Rossum, for enabling the whole process in the first place? Etc, etc. I also think that there’s an excellent fic lurking somewhere in the idea that being a doll is the ultimate in “just following orders”, and that Viktor used to be a solider.
Mad Social Scientists. Mostly because of the panellist who simply went by the name of “Sparky”, who actually works as a psychologist for the British Army, doing ominous mad-science-like things. The panel talked a lot about why it’s hard to write a social scientist villain and about how really good ones might look, and Sparky was about one-for-one with “insightful, clever comments” and “gut-splittingly-funny one-liners”. He also referred to both Zimbardo and Milgram as real-life evil social scientists, which intrigued me. We studied both scientists in my psych class, and we talked about how what they did would no longer be considered ethical, but the perhaps quite legitimate thought that their actions were “evil” was never once mentioned. Zimbardo was actually my teacher’s favourite ever psychologist, and we watched this whole series of videos narrated by him... which in hindsight is actually sort of really creepy.
(Those not familiar with Zimbardo will want to google “Stanford Prison Experiment”. It’s interesting reading. Milgram is less intriguing, IMHO, but for those who might care his full name is Stanley Milgram and the “evil” experiment in question is known smiley as the Milgram Experiment.)
The Persistence of Form and Ritual. Probably the most academic panel I went to, with very qualified panellists. It ranged a bit, and didn’t really stay totally on topic, but I was willing to forgo the possibility of a more in-depth discussion on ritual in favour of learning about the German folk instrument that involves putting a cat in a sack and hitting it with a stick. With three fascinating, articulate and highly educated people up at the front of the room (and one other guy who was at least clever and courteous enough not to talk if he had nothing to say, which is a trait a few more of the panellists could really have used ^^”), they could probably have been talking about dryer lint and I’d still have been interested.
The Economics of Star Traders. Not only does economics, normally deadly boring, magically become interesting when you put 400 years of travel between your product and it’s end destination, but James Allen Gardner was a panellist! Despite the fact that his career appears to be in the toilet (he’s an excellent writer, one of the best, well, ever, in my opinion, but apparent a bit rubbish at business) the man remains a powerhouse of creativity. Every other point the panellists discussed, he immediately proposed a way to turn it into a fascinating short story. I ended up just sort of sitting there gape-mouthed going, “Please write this now, oh, please!”. Also in the panel was Larry Niven, which amused me. Growing up in my house, Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, and Niven were the Gods of Sci-Fi. I’ve since learned that most of the world considers the first three to be the Founding Fathers, while Niven is the young guy who came along later, but it’s hard to shake off your childhood. It was like being in the room with an old, senile, sci-fi-writer version of Elvis - an icon of my parents generation, fascinating because of what he stands for.
Some panels, of course, were bound to be... less than glee-tastic.
Less awesome panels were the ones like “The Obligatory Stargate Panel”, “Battlestar Galactia: The Post Mortem” and “Reboot: Starting Over”, which devolved into gripe sessions against the creators and HUGE amounts of bitterness against new fans. In the “Reboot” panel in particular, I ended up sort of cringed down in my seat, trying to disappear lest the other fans notice me and turn me into the scapegoat for their almighty wrath against my entire generation. I just wanted to shout, “Look, it’s not my fault they’re making prettier, darker, grittier versions of your childhood! They’re also more realistic and have plots that hold up to the common sense of a two-year-old, and characters that react like humans rather than caricatures!” Old fans seem very much in favour of the concept of new fans, until they realise that the new fans might, *gasp* like different things than them! After all, what good is fandom unless we’re all exactly the same?
Also less than awesome were panels like “Friends Without Benefits”, “Death, Disability, and Illness, in Science Fiction and Fantasy”. These panels turned into book lists, where people raised issues and then other people came up with stories that had addressed those issues, and then discussed the plot of those stories in a way that seemed tailor made to make newer fans feel like complete imbeciles for not being caught up on forty years of sci-fi literature. Again, I just wanted to shout, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t care! Those stories are no longer culturally relevant to my generation, dammit, and I don’t have time to read that much lit just to ‘appreciate it’s role in exploring the issues’!”
If I sound bitter, well, I am. On the other hand, if I sound like I didn’t have fun... I had fun! Lots of it! Other fun things I did included:
Watching Masqerade! I think my favourite act was “A Public Service Announcement for Video Game Designers” which was basically a chick in a costume that I didn’t recognise - a female video game character, I assume - delivering a hilarious, threatening, “open-letter” style rant, ostensibly to video game designers. “A metal bra is not armour! It might be protecting the bits of me that you care most about, but it’s not doing a very good job saving the rest of my skin!”
The dealer’s room and art show! Neither was as extensive as I’d secretly been hoping, but I did buy a pin that made m giggle. It reads:
“Bones! It’s the Pirate Roberts!”
“He’s Dread, Jim.”
Seeing Neil Gaiman! Both in the halls and at one of his panels. It was a bit surreal - how weird must it be, to be so famous you can fill a largeish room with people who’ve come just to hear you ramble a bit about your hobbies? - but very enjoyable, as he is a very good story-teller.
In conclusion, I enjoyed my self, slept very little, and lived off trail-mix, candied ginger, fruit nicked from the continental breakfast, and bad hotel appetiser-like-foods. I also drank an ameretto and three ameretto sours in three days, which I must somewhat sheepishly admit is more alcohol than I’ve ever consumed in such a short period of time, ever. It had no noticeable effect on me, and was tasty. I’m glad to be home, and I’m less glad to be back to the responsibilities of the Real World. In other words: life.
Good night, and good luck.
On the whole, I had a blast. It was a real jolt to see people talking about fannish stuff in real life - to sit there while a literal Greybeard discussed Ray/Fraser slash in a dignified British accent was almost more squee than I could bear! That particular panel was on Friday night - Friday was probably one of the best nights of the con, to be honest, when everything was shiny and new and I hadn’t yet developed any cynicism about the panels yet.
Another good one from Friday night was the Doctor Who panel, “Overpaid, Oversexed, and In Our Time Zone”. The title makes it sound like a gripe session, but in reality it was really just a whole lot of squee, and interesting discussion on how Doctor Who. Paul Cornell, one of the writers, was a panellist, and he provided a lot of interesting insight. Unfortunately, he also expressed, in the course of trying to explain his view on why R.T.D. is making the Doctor more sexual, that all “real people” have sexual urges. Seated there, as I was, beside my closest and co-incidentally asexual| good friend
sophia_sol, this did not fly. Sophia tried to call him on it, and he sort of backpedalled and went “um, er” a lot but didn’t really retract the statement. *sigh*
As time went on and cynicism rose up in tandem with exhaustion (more on this later), I started going to a lot less panels, but some of my favourites remained:
The Ethics of Dollhouse. Again, partially for the squee factor (wait, people NOT me and my dorky dorm-mates actually talk about this stuff?) but also because it was actually quite an interesting conversation at times, particularly when the conversation turned to the question of who holds moral responsibility for the actions of the dolls? The doll themselves, who gave the Dollhouse a blank check for their body? The customer, who requests the action? Dewitt, who authorises it? Topher, who programs the personality? Rossum, for enabling the whole process in the first place? Etc, etc. I also think that there’s an excellent fic lurking somewhere in the idea that being a doll is the ultimate in “just following orders”, and that Viktor used to be a solider.
Mad Social Scientists. Mostly because of the panellist who simply went by the name of “Sparky”, who actually works as a psychologist for the British Army, doing ominous mad-science-like things. The panel talked a lot about why it’s hard to write a social scientist villain and about how really good ones might look, and Sparky was about one-for-one with “insightful, clever comments” and “gut-splittingly-funny one-liners”. He also referred to both Zimbardo and Milgram as real-life evil social scientists, which intrigued me. We studied both scientists in my psych class, and we talked about how what they did would no longer be considered ethical, but the perhaps quite legitimate thought that their actions were “evil” was never once mentioned. Zimbardo was actually my teacher’s favourite ever psychologist, and we watched this whole series of videos narrated by him... which in hindsight is actually sort of really creepy.
(Those not familiar with Zimbardo will want to google “Stanford Prison Experiment”. It’s interesting reading. Milgram is less intriguing, IMHO, but for those who might care his full name is Stanley Milgram and the “evil” experiment in question is known smiley as the Milgram Experiment.)
The Persistence of Form and Ritual. Probably the most academic panel I went to, with very qualified panellists. It ranged a bit, and didn’t really stay totally on topic, but I was willing to forgo the possibility of a more in-depth discussion on ritual in favour of learning about the German folk instrument that involves putting a cat in a sack and hitting it with a stick. With three fascinating, articulate and highly educated people up at the front of the room (and one other guy who was at least clever and courteous enough not to talk if he had nothing to say, which is a trait a few more of the panellists could really have used ^^”), they could probably have been talking about dryer lint and I’d still have been interested.
The Economics of Star Traders. Not only does economics, normally deadly boring, magically become interesting when you put 400 years of travel between your product and it’s end destination, but James Allen Gardner was a panellist! Despite the fact that his career appears to be in the toilet (he’s an excellent writer, one of the best, well, ever, in my opinion, but apparent a bit rubbish at business) the man remains a powerhouse of creativity. Every other point the panellists discussed, he immediately proposed a way to turn it into a fascinating short story. I ended up just sort of sitting there gape-mouthed going, “Please write this now, oh, please!”. Also in the panel was Larry Niven, which amused me. Growing up in my house, Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, and Niven were the Gods of Sci-Fi. I’ve since learned that most of the world considers the first three to be the Founding Fathers, while Niven is the young guy who came along later, but it’s hard to shake off your childhood. It was like being in the room with an old, senile, sci-fi-writer version of Elvis - an icon of my parents generation, fascinating because of what he stands for.
Some panels, of course, were bound to be... less than glee-tastic.
Less awesome panels were the ones like “The Obligatory Stargate Panel”, “Battlestar Galactia: The Post Mortem” and “Reboot: Starting Over”, which devolved into gripe sessions against the creators and HUGE amounts of bitterness against new fans. In the “Reboot” panel in particular, I ended up sort of cringed down in my seat, trying to disappear lest the other fans notice me and turn me into the scapegoat for their almighty wrath against my entire generation. I just wanted to shout, “Look, it’s not my fault they’re making prettier, darker, grittier versions of your childhood! They’re also more realistic and have plots that hold up to the common sense of a two-year-old, and characters that react like humans rather than caricatures!” Old fans seem very much in favour of the concept of new fans, until they realise that the new fans might, *gasp* like different things than them! After all, what good is fandom unless we’re all exactly the same?
Also less than awesome were panels like “Friends Without Benefits”, “Death, Disability, and Illness, in Science Fiction and Fantasy”. These panels turned into book lists, where people raised issues and then other people came up with stories that had addressed those issues, and then discussed the plot of those stories in a way that seemed tailor made to make newer fans feel like complete imbeciles for not being caught up on forty years of sci-fi literature. Again, I just wanted to shout, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t care! Those stories are no longer culturally relevant to my generation, dammit, and I don’t have time to read that much lit just to ‘appreciate it’s role in exploring the issues’!”
If I sound bitter, well, I am. On the other hand, if I sound like I didn’t have fun... I had fun! Lots of it! Other fun things I did included:
Watching Masqerade! I think my favourite act was “A Public Service Announcement for Video Game Designers” which was basically a chick in a costume that I didn’t recognise - a female video game character, I assume - delivering a hilarious, threatening, “open-letter” style rant, ostensibly to video game designers. “A metal bra is not armour! It might be protecting the bits of me that you care most about, but it’s not doing a very good job saving the rest of my skin!”
The dealer’s room and art show! Neither was as extensive as I’d secretly been hoping, but I did buy a pin that made m giggle. It reads:
“Bones! It’s the Pirate Roberts!”
“He’s Dread, Jim.”
Seeing Neil Gaiman! Both in the halls and at one of his panels. It was a bit surreal - how weird must it be, to be so famous you can fill a largeish room with people who’ve come just to hear you ramble a bit about your hobbies? - but very enjoyable, as he is a very good story-teller.
In conclusion, I enjoyed my self, slept very little, and lived off trail-mix, candied ginger, fruit nicked from the continental breakfast, and bad hotel appetiser-like-foods. I also drank an ameretto and three ameretto sours in three days, which I must somewhat sheepishly admit is more alcohol than I’ve ever consumed in such a short period of time, ever. It had no noticeable effect on me, and was tasty. I’m glad to be home, and I’m less glad to be back to the responsibilities of the Real World. In other words: life.
Good night, and good luck.