Kathryn A. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kerravonsen) wrote2010-09-05 09:18 pm
kerravonsen) wrote2010-09-05 09:18 pm
Entry tags:
WorldCon 2010 Day 4
This morning, I looked out my hotel window at the tangle of roads below, and I was reminded of what Henry Ford allegedly said: "You can have any colour you like, so long as it's black." Look how far we've come, so many years later! You can have any colour you like, so long as it's black, white, silver, red or blue. Or yellow if you're a taxi. I did spot one green car, but that was out of a lot of cars.
I may have arrived at the convention centre later, but I feel as if I did more things, particularly in the afternoon.
10:30am: fan lounge, surf and post stuff. Discover that, probably due to the storms, my home system is down; at least, I can't ssh in, and the website is not up. Oh well, can't fix it until I get home in a couple of days.
11am: Reading, Jean Johnson
I had bumped into this lady twice earlier in the convention, and both times she was very friendly, so I decided to check out her work by going to her reading. I was a little late, because I couldn't find the room, but I don't think I missed much. Military SF, but the twist is this: not only does the heroine come from a heavy-world planet (which means that the sergeants are extra hard on her, because they want her to reach her limits) but she has a psi power for seeing potential futures (which isn't that reliable, but can be overwhelming at the wrong time). And I gathered that she was driven to join the Forces because of a vision of disaster which she wanted to prevent. So that gives this a little more interest to me than just a war-and-boot-camp sort of story. The book comes out next year, so I hope I remember to check it out when the time comes.
11:30am: Reading, Jenny Blackford
I stayed in the room for the next person, who disclaimed that her work couldn't be more different than the previous one, since it was a historical novel set in ancient Greece. Well, I'm not averse to historical novels set in ancient Greece, so I stayed. Unfortunately, she was no Gillian Bradshaw; her prose didn't sing, and her characters didn't grab me. It didn't help that the author felt she had to stop and explain things while she was reading, rather than let the text stand for itself. Not the sign of a good writer, sorry.
12 noon: fan lounge, nibbly lunch (dried fruit, beef jerkey, water) More surfing.
1pm: Fantasy Before Fantasy, Science Fiction Before Science Fiction
(Ben Chandler, Rani Graff, Helen Lowe, Carol Ryles)
This panel wandered all over the place, but I didn't feel as if I learned anything new. Some of the things that some of the panellists said irritated me ("Christianity is myth" even though BC apologised before he said it), some were just re-treading old ground, and of course there was a bit of a disagreement about what was the difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy anyway, and whether anything could really be called "Science Fiction" that was written before the term was invented in the 1930s by Hugo Gernsback.
2pm: Mission to "Mars", David D. Levine
Now THIS was interesting. I think I should have gone to the panel before this one in the same room also, since it was about Mars and probably would have been more interesting than the Fantasy Before Fantasy panel.
The speaker had gone on a Mars Mission Simulation in Utah (Mission #88) as "crew journalist", and it was fascinating (lots of pictures) and, er, I really can't encapsulate the talk very well.
* water, water, water
* if it is broken, fix it yourself, because nobody is going to fix it for you
* never throw anything away, even if it is broken, because you never know what might come in handy, and you can only use what you've got right there
* space suits are really annoying to work in
* shared adversity builds comradeship
* the landscape is beautiful
3pm: We Are All Fairy Tales: Doctor Who's Fifth Season
(Rani Graff, Narelle M. Harris, George Ivanoff, Kathryn Sullivan)
This was a rambling but entertaining fannish discussion full of personalities and opinions, particularly Narelle Harris and George Ivonoff. They didn't touch on the "We Are All Fairy Tales" bit, unfortunately, but more of a "What I liked and what I hated about the fifth season", and the inevitable comparisons between the Rusty era and the Moffat era. Everyone on the panel agreed that the Vincent episode was the best one of the season. Narelle declared that if she were Amy and she'd been shown the wonders of the universe, she'd probably want to kiss the Doctor too, but that she was also glad that Eleven is more asexual and not attracted to his companions, because "that would devalue(*) his love for Rose". This immediately made me think of
lizbee and how she would laugh at that remark.(**)
George Ivanoff remarked that both Rusty and Moffat seemed to be following the "George Lucas" school of writing - make everything bigger and louder and more epic, at least with the season finales. First you have the Daleks. Then you have the Daleks and the Cybermen. Then you have the Master. Then you have Davros destroying the whole of the multiverse! Then you have the Destruction Of Time Itself! And then Moffat destroyed the universe again. Narelle piped up and said that she wished that the next season finale would come right back down in scale, such as the Doctor being yelled at by someone's mum. George pointed out that that had been done already, and Narelle countered that she'd like them to bring it back.
As I said, very fannish, nothing particularly enlightening, but fun all the same.
(*) The word wasn't actually "devalue" but I can't remember what the exact word was.
(**) And I discovered later that Lizbee actually had been there, and had snorted at that remark.
4pm: Where Do Elves Come From?
(Jeanette Auer, Dave Freer, Duncan Lay, Rose-Marie Lillian, Linda Taglieri)
This one was mildly interesting, though they did wander from the topic a bit. Celtic myth, Norse myth, and did you know that premature babies can have pointed ears? Hence one possible explanation for the Changeling myth. Are elves an expression of the Other? Of our own Xenophobia? Of our desire for immortality? Has the Judeo-Christian idea of Good and Evil changed our portrayal of Elves? Are Elves and Faeries the same thing? A lot of these questions were answered yes, no and maybe.
5pm: Boxcutters Presents: Writing Doctor Who
(Paul Cornell, Rob Shearman, John Richards and second Boxcutter person whose name was not on the programme)
This was awesomely fun.
"Everyone went to my wedding." (PC)
"I kept on expecting them to tell me that they really wanted someone else." (RS)
"So, of course, you have to keep on killing your babies, so we'd take out all the old-school continuity references."
"And then Rusty would put them back in again."
"He kept on resurrecting our dead babies."
"So Rusty ended up with an army of zombie babies."
You had to be there.
Then, as I was walking towards the door after the item had finished, who should I spot but Lizbee! So there were hugs and talking and introductions (Kathryn, meet Caitlin, Caitlin, meet Kathryn). Lizbee had to go, though, as she was going back home rather than staying in a hotel. Hopefully I will see her tomorrow.
6pm:
Dumped stuff in hotel room.
Went to food court for dinner. I think I saw Lizbee walking past with someone else, but it might not have been her.
Back to hotel room.
Wrote this.
I deliberately didn't go to the Hugos because I got the impression they would go late, and I didn't want to be trapped there that late.
I may have arrived at the convention centre later, but I feel as if I did more things, particularly in the afternoon.
10:30am: fan lounge, surf and post stuff. Discover that, probably due to the storms, my home system is down; at least, I can't ssh in, and the website is not up. Oh well, can't fix it until I get home in a couple of days.
11am: Reading, Jean Johnson
I had bumped into this lady twice earlier in the convention, and both times she was very friendly, so I decided to check out her work by going to her reading. I was a little late, because I couldn't find the room, but I don't think I missed much. Military SF, but the twist is this: not only does the heroine come from a heavy-world planet (which means that the sergeants are extra hard on her, because they want her to reach her limits) but she has a psi power for seeing potential futures (which isn't that reliable, but can be overwhelming at the wrong time). And I gathered that she was driven to join the Forces because of a vision of disaster which she wanted to prevent. So that gives this a little more interest to me than just a war-and-boot-camp sort of story. The book comes out next year, so I hope I remember to check it out when the time comes.
11:30am: Reading, Jenny Blackford
I stayed in the room for the next person, who disclaimed that her work couldn't be more different than the previous one, since it was a historical novel set in ancient Greece. Well, I'm not averse to historical novels set in ancient Greece, so I stayed. Unfortunately, she was no Gillian Bradshaw; her prose didn't sing, and her characters didn't grab me. It didn't help that the author felt she had to stop and explain things while she was reading, rather than let the text stand for itself. Not the sign of a good writer, sorry.
12 noon: fan lounge, nibbly lunch (dried fruit, beef jerkey, water) More surfing.
1pm: Fantasy Before Fantasy, Science Fiction Before Science Fiction
(Ben Chandler, Rani Graff, Helen Lowe, Carol Ryles)
This panel wandered all over the place, but I didn't feel as if I learned anything new. Some of the things that some of the panellists said irritated me ("Christianity is myth" even though BC apologised before he said it), some were just re-treading old ground, and of course there was a bit of a disagreement about what was the difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy anyway, and whether anything could really be called "Science Fiction" that was written before the term was invented in the 1930s by Hugo Gernsback.
2pm: Mission to "Mars", David D. Levine
Now THIS was interesting. I think I should have gone to the panel before this one in the same room also, since it was about Mars and probably would have been more interesting than the Fantasy Before Fantasy panel.
The speaker had gone on a Mars Mission Simulation in Utah (Mission #88) as "crew journalist", and it was fascinating (lots of pictures) and, er, I really can't encapsulate the talk very well.
* water, water, water
* if it is broken, fix it yourself, because nobody is going to fix it for you
* never throw anything away, even if it is broken, because you never know what might come in handy, and you can only use what you've got right there
* space suits are really annoying to work in
* shared adversity builds comradeship
* the landscape is beautiful
3pm: We Are All Fairy Tales: Doctor Who's Fifth Season
(Rani Graff, Narelle M. Harris, George Ivanoff, Kathryn Sullivan)
This was a rambling but entertaining fannish discussion full of personalities and opinions, particularly Narelle Harris and George Ivonoff. They didn't touch on the "We Are All Fairy Tales" bit, unfortunately, but more of a "What I liked and what I hated about the fifth season", and the inevitable comparisons between the Rusty era and the Moffat era. Everyone on the panel agreed that the Vincent episode was the best one of the season. Narelle declared that if she were Amy and she'd been shown the wonders of the universe, she'd probably want to kiss the Doctor too, but that she was also glad that Eleven is more asexual and not attracted to his companions, because "that would devalue(*) his love for Rose". This immediately made me think of
lizbee and how she would laugh at that remark.(**)George Ivanoff remarked that both Rusty and Moffat seemed to be following the "George Lucas" school of writing - make everything bigger and louder and more epic, at least with the season finales. First you have the Daleks. Then you have the Daleks and the Cybermen. Then you have the Master. Then you have Davros destroying the whole of the multiverse! Then you have the Destruction Of Time Itself! And then Moffat destroyed the universe again. Narelle piped up and said that she wished that the next season finale would come right back down in scale, such as the Doctor being yelled at by someone's mum. George pointed out that that had been done already, and Narelle countered that she'd like them to bring it back.
As I said, very fannish, nothing particularly enlightening, but fun all the same.
(*) The word wasn't actually "devalue" but I can't remember what the exact word was.
(**) And I discovered later that Lizbee actually had been there, and had snorted at that remark.
4pm: Where Do Elves Come From?
(Jeanette Auer, Dave Freer, Duncan Lay, Rose-Marie Lillian, Linda Taglieri)
This one was mildly interesting, though they did wander from the topic a bit. Celtic myth, Norse myth, and did you know that premature babies can have pointed ears? Hence one possible explanation for the Changeling myth. Are elves an expression of the Other? Of our own Xenophobia? Of our desire for immortality? Has the Judeo-Christian idea of Good and Evil changed our portrayal of Elves? Are Elves and Faeries the same thing? A lot of these questions were answered yes, no and maybe.
5pm: Boxcutters Presents: Writing Doctor Who
(Paul Cornell, Rob Shearman, John Richards and second Boxcutter person whose name was not on the programme)
This was awesomely fun.
"Everyone went to my wedding." (PC)
"I kept on expecting them to tell me that they really wanted someone else." (RS)
"So, of course, you have to keep on killing your babies, so we'd take out all the old-school continuity references."
"And then Rusty would put them back in again."
"He kept on resurrecting our dead babies."
"So Rusty ended up with an army of zombie babies."
You had to be there.
Then, as I was walking towards the door after the item had finished, who should I spot but Lizbee! So there were hugs and talking and introductions (Kathryn, meet Caitlin, Caitlin, meet Kathryn). Lizbee had to go, though, as she was going back home rather than staying in a hotel. Hopefully I will see her tomorrow.
6pm:
Dumped stuff in hotel room.
Went to food court for dinner. I think I saw Lizbee walking past with someone else, but it might not have been her.
Back to hotel room.
Wrote this.
I deliberately didn't go to the Hugos because I got the impression they would go late, and I didn't want to be trapped there that late.
no subject
Rob pushes all my 'Gareth' buttons, but without the excessive alcohol which is a plus.
BTW, just out of curiosity, do you read my journal here or on LJ or not at all?
no subject
Snap!
I looked up just now, before I read your remark, and saw him walking past, and thought, "Y'know, he reminds me of Gareth Thomas."
BTW, just out of curiosity, do you read my journal here or on LJ or not at all?
I do read your journal, but I haven't been commenting much lately. As for where, either place, depending on where I happen to look first.
no subject
PS. That's a really good icon. It evokes the sound of the words.
no subject
Ah, then I probably decided to follow you on LJ because the LJ post links to both journals while the DW post doesn't.
That's a really good icon. It evokes the sound of the words.
Thanks! That was a (excuse the pun) very memorable scene.
no subject
(**) And I discovered later that Lizbee actually had been there, and had snorted at that remark.
THAT WAS WHEN
no subject
You were facing the other way, and I was sitting down eating among the masses, no big. I went looking for you when I'd finished, but you'd probably already left, or went upstairs or something.
THAT WAS WHEN [personal profile] calapine MADE ME LEAVE!
Awwww.
Hopefully I shall see you today. And you're probably already hear, so you won't read this comment until later.
no subject
whether anything could really be called "Science Fiction" that was written before the term was invented in the 1930s by Hugo Gernsback
Was whoever said that being delinerately provocative? Because it seems nonsense to me to try to claim that the work of HG Wells isn't SF. I think he was the man who really "invented" modern SF. (I know that Jules Verne has a claim, but his stories seem more like adventures that have a few advanced pieces of technology in them. They don't have the same "science fictiony" feel. You can also make a case for Mary Shelley.)
no subject
no subject
And Mary Shelley was cited repeatedly.
For each of them, it was also analysed what they themselves considered their work to be, and that might have been part of the motivation of the audience member, because of course they couldn't have considered their work to be SF, since the term hadn't been invented yet; but I also got the impression that questioner felt that it was shoddy analysis to impose later standards on earlier works.
With the Fantasy part of the discussion it was easier, since it was simple to say that Fantasy had its roots in myth, but with Science Fiction it was harder, doubly so when one considers that not everyone agrees on what it is that distinguishes Science Fiction from Fantasy.