Orbital passim or passe?
Mar. 26th, 2008 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
green_amberI'm off to an IT law conference in Glasgow tomorrow (sigh!) so it looks like I'll never remember anything by Saturday, so i'll just flip down a few highlights. This was a really great con and I'm very glad we're going back there in 2 years (tho I do hope we can have slightly nicer food options next time - buffet Friday night was really not good - but I gather they're fixing the aircon problem??) All we need then is the swimming pool back :) Thanks to all the comittee and esp ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
despotliz for lit prog and fishlifter (both of) for fannish programme.
The guests . Unlikely highlight for me, who barely reads sf anymore, you may say!!! But these were fabulous people to listen to, not just authors. Neil Gaiman is not only one of my favourite comics writers, but also someone who I knew as a slightly-more-than-acquaintance way back when as I helped run the second sf convention he was ever GoH at (Mexicon 2, 1984 - not mentioned in his GoH speech damnit!) I wasn't really expecting him to remember me at all, but he did and we had a lovely catch up Sunday night (with MItch Benn on the side - no bad , huh) and some fun and hugs Tuesday morning with pig and Serena his PA (Pig Abuser) (when everyone sensible had left! - see earlier pics.)This all somehow sort of restored my faith in human nature and niceness and was really , er, nice. Also he did a great reading at his GoH slot ("Orange" - need to get hold of it and the other free readings on last.fm - I'm making myself nota bene's here...) and was on some excellent panels, notably the Hitchhiker nostalgia onejohncoxon ably (if terrifiedly) ran. Again this was a lot of fun and the badinage about the impossibly hard text-based computer game has really made me want to have a go at it!
Other guest-based highlights. China Mieville . PHWOOOAAAR. My god have you seen those upper arms. Ahem. Also obviously scarily clever, and his GoH speech on why postmodern criticism of sf texts should not be decried as an attempt to spoil the fun for others, was masterful - really. If this guy isn't a lecturer already, he really should be. I had no paper on me so I ended up texting quotes from him to myself on my mobile - some of these rather sureally ended up in the piececatabolism/ "lj user="johnnyeponymous"> TAFF zine. I think Vector are planning to publish this (coalescent?) - I really hope so. I might even rejoin the BSFA to read that..
autopope looked consummately knackered throughout (and I laughed a lot at the LJ entry he wrote during the con about how ded ded ded he was) but was also good value - sorry I didn't see more of yours, Charlie.
Tanith Lee I was initially not very interested in. I read Drinking Sapphire Wine yonks ago but had (probably entirely unreasonably) pegged her as the kind of drippy women's fantasy writer I don't like much. In the flesh, however, she is magical! I don't quite know why but over the weekend she came to represent the kind of sheer imagination and vision and drive of the natural writer, as opposed to the kind of orderly mass-produced product that the culture of writers' workshops, tips on selling, etc, seem to be trying to create. Tuesday morning she settled in with me, Abi and v good looking hubby on te lobby couches, and we discussed everything from whether Heinlein was really a transsexual (fjm 's theory originally), to how to have sex all night, whether I was really a gay man in a women's body, and the painkilling effect of 99% solids cocoa chocolate. She was lovely to the nth and I plan to read some now (her rec to me was a YA novel something like "The McCReady" or "McGurdy Diaries"? It doesn't seem to be on Amazon.. anyone know what it is?
Other panels I went to , or was on -- thousands it seemed, but the best was prob the YA panel with Cory Doctorow, China and 3 others I can't recall, followed by the literary cricism panelandrewducker moderated, with Tanith, fjm, pennski and autopope. I really loved the very high standard of theretical debate at both of these - the first on the theme of whether teenagers are inherently political because they are going through changes all the time ("losing many virginities"); and the second about whether an author's vision can ever be wrong - are there merely wrong readers, or also wrong authors? So pleasant after the many many panels I've been to where interesting stuff gets buried in "how do you become a published author?" or "where did you get the idea for CultureSingularityRingworld?"
Of my own, the Dr Who one went pretty well I think (with the feted Paul Cornell lurking bashfully in the back row until the guy sitting in front started talking about him, androzk just couldn't resist saying "Behind you!" (I also later had a great chat with Paul in the bar in which he attempted to convince militant atheist Andy that season 2 of Torchwood was worth watching. Amazingly, he kinda succeeded..); the films one was ok; and the fanhistory one was, well, let's say if it was in the deep south there would have been white robes, hoods and rope.. it only occurred to me after that if you title a panel Fanhistory: why bother? only the people who ARE bothered turn up, natch - the ones who aren't bothered, don't care! So I was kinda out-voted in the room :) THis panel (and the reactions of the audience) made me think a helluva lot about pecking orders in social groups, getting older in fandom, whether history is valuable only as something to learn from, decline and decadence vs vibrancy in cultures, etc etc. I may even get around to writing this up..!
General fun. God this is longer than I meant to do!! LOTS. Montreal bid party was fabulous - nice people, and an amazing range of interesting liqueurs. Late on they started making me martinis ("do you have any mixers for this gin?" "Only vermouth!") which kept me under sail till 5.30 am at night :)
Writing a silly editorial with Christina for the TAFF zine, just like old days, in a room primarily full of laptops not people. Dinner withspikeiowa, anef and Mike A, and Christina, at a 70s time warp pub with Escheresque floors and stairs (linked by ether to the Radisson NonEuclidean, clearly) and where I consumed The Mixed Grill That Ate Manhattan.
Mitch Benn's wonderful live set (I really hopebohemiancoast saw the eBay sketch) and later finding out he was an Ed Uni ex and swapping anecdotes. Catching up with James S (whose LJ name seem to be wrecking this text!!). Very belatedly helping seph_hazard with the newsletter, which made me all nostalgic - would you like a helper next time, johncoxon ? Meeting loads of people I'd never met from my FL (hello cdave,hirez), or whom I hadn't seen for centuries, echoes from the 80s in form of Pam W, Linda K, and Alun Harries (it was a very time warp convention - Christina and I kept quoting snatches of Life on Mars/A2A at each other). Saturday saw a mini invasion of Lj-goffs, and most the longlost Surrey Limpwrists were there I think, tucked up in the Winchester Home for Old Pharts :) Seeing Cory's new very tiny and very gorgeous baby in the smallest EFF t-shirt ever made.
And finally finally watching Abi's attempt to get Neil Gaiman's giant pink pig into the revolving doors, "so we can watch it go round and round!". Amazingly, both pig and door survived - if only just.
Two days later I am STILL knackered!:))
despotliz for lit prog and fishlifter (both of) for fannish programme.The guests . Unlikely highlight for me, who barely reads sf anymore, you may say!!! But these were fabulous people to listen to, not just authors. Neil Gaiman is not only one of my favourite comics writers, but also someone who I knew as a slightly-more-than-acquaintance way back when as I helped run the second sf convention he was ever GoH at (Mexicon 2, 1984 - not mentioned in his GoH speech damnit!) I wasn't really expecting him to remember me at all, but he did and we had a lovely catch up Sunday night (with MItch Benn on the side - no bad , huh) and some fun and hugs Tuesday morning with pig and Serena his PA (Pig Abuser) (when everyone sensible had left! - see earlier pics.)This all somehow sort of restored my faith in human nature and niceness and was really , er, nice. Also he did a great reading at his GoH slot ("Orange" - need to get hold of it and the other free readings on last.fm - I'm making myself nota bene's here...) and was on some excellent panels, notably the Hitchhiker nostalgia one
johncoxon ably (if terrifiedly) ran. Again this was a lot of fun and the badinage about the impossibly hard text-based computer game has really made me want to have a go at it!Other guest-based highlights. China Mieville . PHWOOOAAAR. My god have you seen those upper arms. Ahem. Also obviously scarily clever, and his GoH speech on why postmodern criticism of sf texts should not be decried as an attempt to spoil the fun for others, was masterful - really. If this guy isn't a lecturer already, he really should be. I had no paper on me so I ended up texting quotes from him to myself on my mobile - some of these rather sureally ended up in the piece
catabolism/ "lj user="johnnyeponymous"> TAFF zine. I think Vector are planning to publish this (coalescent?) - I really hope so. I might even rejoin the BSFA to read that..autopope looked consummately knackered throughout (and I laughed a lot at the LJ entry he wrote during the con about how ded ded ded he was) but was also good value - sorry I didn't see more of yours, Charlie.Tanith Lee I was initially not very interested in. I read Drinking Sapphire Wine yonks ago but had (probably entirely unreasonably) pegged her as the kind of drippy women's fantasy writer I don't like much. In the flesh, however, she is magical! I don't quite know why but over the weekend she came to represent the kind of sheer imagination and vision and drive of the natural writer, as opposed to the kind of orderly mass-produced product that the culture of writers' workshops, tips on selling, etc, seem to be trying to create. Tuesday morning she settled in with me, Abi and v good looking hubby on te lobby couches, and we discussed everything from whether Heinlein was really a transsexual (
fjm 's theory originally), to how to have sex all night, whether I was really a gay man in a women's body, and the painkilling effect of 99% solids cocoa chocolate. She was lovely to the nth and I plan to read some now (her rec to me was a YA novel something like "The McCReady" or "McGurdy Diaries"? It doesn't seem to be on Amazon.. anyone know what it is?Other panels I went to , or was on -- thousands it seemed, but the best was prob the YA panel with Cory Doctorow, China and 3 others I can't recall, followed by the literary cricism panel
andrewducker moderated, with Tanith, fjm, pennski and autopope. I really loved the very high standard of theretical debate at both of these - the first on the theme of whether teenagers are inherently political because they are going through changes all the time ("losing many virginities"); and the second about whether an author's vision can ever be wrong - are there merely wrong readers, or also wrong authors? So pleasant after the many many panels I've been to where interesting stuff gets buried in "how do you become a published author?" or "where did you get the idea for CultureSingularityRingworld?"Of my own, the Dr Who one went pretty well I think (with the feted Paul Cornell lurking bashfully in the back row until the guy sitting in front started talking about him, and
rozk just couldn't resist saying "Behind you!" (I also later had a great chat with Paul in the bar in which he attempted to convince militant atheist Andy that season 2 of Torchwood was worth watching. Amazingly, he kinda succeeded..); the films one was ok; and the fanhistory one was, well, let's say if it was in the deep south there would have been white robes, hoods and rope.. it only occurred to me after that if you title a panel Fanhistory: why bother? only the people who ARE bothered turn up, natch - the ones who aren't bothered, don't care! So I was kinda out-voted in the room :) THis panel (and the reactions of the audience) made me think a helluva lot about pecking orders in social groups, getting older in fandom, whether history is valuable only as something to learn from, decline and decadence vs vibrancy in cultures, etc etc. I may even get around to writing this up..!General fun. God this is longer than I meant to do!! LOTS. Montreal bid party was fabulous - nice people, and an amazing range of interesting liqueurs. Late on they started making me martinis ("do you have any mixers for this gin?" "Only vermouth!") which kept me under sail till 5.30 am at night :)
Writing a silly editorial with Christina for the TAFF zine, just like old days, in a room primarily full of laptops not people. Dinner with
spikeiowa, anef and Mike A, and Christina, at a 70s time warp pub with Escheresque floors and stairs (linked by ether to the Radisson NonEuclidean, clearly) and where I consumed The Mixed Grill That Ate Manhattan. Mitch Benn's wonderful live set (I really hope
bohemiancoast saw the eBay sketch) and later finding out he was an Ed Uni ex and swapping anecdotes. Catching up with James S (whose LJ name seem to be wrecking this text!!). Very belatedly helping seph_hazard with the newsletter, which made me all nostalgic - would you like a helper next time, johncoxon ? Meeting loads of people I'd never met from my FL (hello cdave,hirez), or whom I hadn't seen for centuries, echoes from the 80s in form of Pam W, Linda K, and Alun Harries (it was a very time warp convention - Christina and I kept quoting snatches of Life on Mars/A2A at each other). Saturday saw a mini invasion of Lj-goffs, and most the longlost Surrey Limpwrists were there I think, tucked up in the Winchester Home for Old Pharts :) Seeing Cory's new very tiny and very gorgeous baby in the smallest EFF t-shirt ever made.And finally finally watching Abi's attempt to get Neil Gaiman's giant pink pig into the revolving doors, "so we can watch it go round and round!". Amazingly, both pig and door survived - if only just.
Two days later I am STILL knackered!:))
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 12:11 am (UTC)Martin McGrath, Ruth O'Reilly, and Amanda Hemingway. I am sooo annoyed I missed this one and wondering why on earth I schedules Not the Clarkes against it, but it did get me an awesome seat for Gaiman's GoH slot.
followed by the literary cricism panel andrewducker moderated, with Tanith, fjm, pennski and um someone else?
That would be
no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 12:20 am (UTC)It was recorded, and Mr Mieville was not anti the idea of publishing it, although obviously he wants to see (and probably polish) the transcript before letting it loose in the wild. So, fingers crossed it will appear sometime in the second half of the year -- I'll try to remember to let you know.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 02:59 pm (UTC)I've also been reading through Peter Weston's Prolapse, which I have to say I find quite strange in many ways. On the one hand, it's more fan-paleontology than fan-history ("when dinosaurs ruled the earth"), but it's also striking how little changes.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 07:21 pm (UTC)Oh, and it was a pleasure to meet you surliminal. And I was sorry you couldn't nmg. I remembered meeting you, ias, and the garklet last year, and was looking forward to seeing you all again.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 08:31 pm (UTC)I don't want to do my day job anymore.(has swelled head still from the weekend).
no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 09:33 pm (UTC)