Panel Notes From Arisia

[skogkatt]

This weekend was Arisia. I was on a whopping 13 program items, which is quite a lot. I have panel notes from three of them, which I present to you here in one giant bundle. The panels were Trans* and Gender Variant SF, Beyond Binary, and Asexuality in SF These are not transcripts, just hastily scribbled points, and, where possible, all the works

Comments

[sartorias]

Good stuff.

(Also, personal plug: my book BANNER OF THE DAMNED is written by an asexual character.)

[skogkatt]

Narrated by? I still haven't read that one!

[sartorias]

Narrated,yes. (Blame the heat and smog)

[cucumberseed]

Thank you! Taking a look now.

[skogkatt]

Hope you find some useful stuff.

[asakiyume]

(You must be exhausted. I know that in addition to everything else, you hosted people. Well done--you're a hero!)

Your audience seems very focused on The Left Hand of Darkness!

It's not fiction, but there's Lisa Bradley's poem "We Come Together We Fall Apart" features an asexual character.

[skogkatt]

That's a good point about Lisa's poem! I was mostly quiet on the Asexuality panel, as the sole panelist who doesn't identify as asexual...

[valarltd]

Because it's about the most unusual thing that gets universally read, the one that doesn't fall into the binary.

[asakiyume]

*nods* --that makes sense

[txanne]

So many things to add to the TBR mountain!

A small correction: the Wells novel in question is _The Element of Fire_.

[skogkatt]

Thanks for reading. I'll note your correction in the body of the entry.

[akiko]

According to Wells, it's Death of the Necromancer.

[skogkatt]

Ah, okay. I will add that to the body of the entry.

[valarltd]

My usual co-author, Naomi Brooks, is asexual or autoerotic, whichever (she has no preference on term)

We've written a cross-dressed prince who uses female pronouns out of habit.

I had a PI I thought was asexual. She thought she was asexual ("I gave up going to the movies when I realized I didn't care about those pretty pretty people and their pretty pretty problems, whetehr romantic or explosive") until the mana dropped the right man in her office. Even then, the "Mana is making me want you" part of the deal just made her mad.

You met Gabriel at OutLanta, and we're in the middle of Sword&Sorcery piece about a thief who can change bio-sex at will. We'll probably be doing a lot more genderqueer stuff, since Gabriel identifies as genderqueer.

[skogkatt]

Thanks for reading and sharing your recs.

[spacehawk]

My usual co-author, Naomi Brooks, is asexual or autoerotic, whichever (she has no preference on term)

She may have no preference on the term, but in the way the term asexual is used by the community, these are not equivalent and interchangeable terms. Not all asexual people masturbate/self-stimulate.

She thought she was asexual ("I gave up going to the movies when I realized I didn't care about those pretty pretty people and their pretty pretty problems, whether romantic or explosive") until the mana dropped the right man in her office.I cannot speak for this person and her particular sexual orientation. As a matter of accuracy, however, being asexual has little bearing on whether or to what degree one cares about characters in movies and the conflicts of their lives (or other people one knows in real life). Being asexual does not mean one can't understand, or doesn't care about, the lives and conflicts of sexual people. Likewise, being sexual doesn't mean one cares about the lives and issues of other people either (real or in