My World Fantasy Schedule

[ellen_kushner]

SATURDAY
10:00 AM: From Elfland to Poughkeepsie:  Should Fantasy Sound Like Fantasy?* 
Ellen Klages, Ellen Kushner(Moderator - ohhhh, the power!), Shawna McCarthy, Terri-Lynne Defino, Susan Forest

Ursula K. Le Guin argued [in her essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie"] that epic or mythic fantasy should have a language that helps the story keep a

Comments

[flake_sake]

I tend to go with this rule of thumb:

http://xkcd.com/483/

I love it when people give there worlds their own language, because it defines us so much and if someone really has a love for the different feelings of languages it can be fantastic. But sometimes these things go horribly wrong and it's much better to just leave it all in mundane language and bring in the innovation somewhere else.

[ellen_kushner]

hahahaha! Oh, I do agree! great cartoon.

But that's not what Le Guin was (and I hope this panel will be) talking about - her essay is concerned with the way we use regular old English stylistically to make clear that We're Not In Kansas (or Poughkeepsie) any more. Her great essay begins here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ksOjjuy3issC&lpg=PA185&pg=PA84#v=onepage&q&f=false

(and if that link is no good, just go to page 83 and keep reading)

[ellen_kushner]

Oh, good! We're not too heavily scheduled (yet), but I bet you are.

[dramaturgca]

I should try to go to WFC, some year when I have a job and money. I want to meeeeet you and Delia...

[elswhere1]

Hubig's! I just heard of Hubig's on "Treme", that series about New Orleans by the guy who did "The Wire." Just the way the characters reacted to the mention of it made me want one.