Readercon XXI: Friday, Part the First

Exhausted, mostly because I am full of ideas and other people's words. I had a good first day atReadercon. We got there without getting lost for the first year ever (their address foiled GPS in the past) and got set up in our room and registered quite smoothly.

The panels were not all fantastic, but mostly solid. The first panel was "Interstitial Then, Genre Now" which had some heavyweight critics in the panel. John Clute and Michael Dirda seriously interrogated the idea of interstitial fiction, while Peter Dubé, attending his first SF convention, provided some fresh thoughts to how to strategize and envision the idea of writing between genres. Theodora Goss, a participant in the Interstitial Arts Foundation and co-editor of the firstInterfictions anthology, guided the discussion but had to think fast to deal with the depth of the panel's critique of the idea. I am going to do a much fuller, reflective write-up of this panel later.

The next panel, "History & Memory in Historical & Spec. Fic," ended up being a much more personal discussion by the panelists than I had anticipated. Howard Waldrop told a great story about an ancestor who fought in the Confederate War, N. K. Jemisin talked at length about her preacher grandfather and his influence on her work, and David Anthony Durham discussed how he projected feelings about the father-son relationship into his portrayal of Hannibal in Pride of Carthage. The anecdotes were compelling, but were much more linked to individual history than ideas of history in fiction. I had hoped to hear about both during the hour, about how personal memory/history and larger ideas of the historical are channeled into an author's work.

I was pretty excited about the next panel: "New England: At Home to the Unheimlich?" Another stellar group of panelists were on hand to discuss the peculiar resonance of the region to horror and the uncanny. Everyone on the panel contributed to the discussion, but I wanted to hear about more than how Stephen King influenced everyone and how the change of seasons is significant to fiction set in the region. I appreciated how people kept coming back to the deep, peculiar history of New England, and I loved the idea of Cotton Mather as the first regional horror writer, and there were a number of moments where you could see how region and genre interacted, how this setting influences a number of tropes and can be both rote and surprising.

The last panel I attended before taking a break was "Non-Western Cultures in Fantasy." Theodora Goss once again led a spirited discussion about respect, cultural appropriation, and getting a feel f0r walking around in other people's skins. There was some tension in the discussion of owning people's stories and a rather unreflective take on the idea of universalism, but Cat Valente did a smashing job of reformulating the idea of borrowing with the metaphor of renting/leasing stories. Nalo Hopkinson provided some strong advice on writing about other cultures, including the need for writers to realize that regardless of who the subject is, you cannot write about "the other" without creating some friction, and it is important to have not just respect, but a moral compass when deciding how to write about things outside of your personal experience.

It was a thought-provoking morning. I had a lot to digest as I headed to the Bookshop.

More tomorrow!

At Readercon!

I am taking a break, wrestling with hotel internet and trying to find places to plug in my computer in rooms with literally two sockets and a pile of other folks with electronics (who do not seem inclined to share). But it's good so far: four panels so far and three of them were quite excellent. I'll post a write-up tonight. I've seen several luminaries and look forward to kaffeeklatsching with Samuel Delany later (and posing for a new picture, perhaps!).

Issues of authority and genre seem dominant so far, at least in the programming track I'm following. The discussions are compelling because many of the panelists are pushing against the idea of the panel and going into deep territory about what constitutes the literature of SF and how to write about it powerfully and with respect for the sources, while still taking chances with it. John Clute is as always erudite and fun to listen to, and I found a lot to chew on in the panel on New England.

I have seen a few familiar faces, including that of another Ithacan, Stephen Frug. I enjoy people watching at Readercon not just for the famous faces, but for the generally high level of camaraderie that everyone demonstrates. Knots of excited conversation, hugs in the hallways, and engaged audiences in the panels make this a very tight social engagement. I have been pretty shy the past two years but I hope to attend more of the social stuff this year. We'll see how my resolve holds up. . . .

New FOG column

Here is my latest on Forces of Geek. Unfortunately, due to problems at my end my Apex blog post is not up, but will hopefully show up a little later. I will post it here when it does go up.

This is a pretty meta column, but I find myself worrying at certain generalities of the SF genre, while wanting to articulate what I see of value within it. Why is it so rewarding to read? Why does it power a thriving subculture? I really want to dig more deeply into these questions, and I find that both of these pieces are getting to that desire.

Enjoy!

I Live!

It's been awhile, I know. Life is just a giddy thing, and that is my conclusion.

---Recent writing: My last FoG column was well-received; I got a few comments and compliments for it. It was fun to write.

Not much fiction. Life being giddy and all that.

---I am still hoping to attend Readercon 21. Samuel Delany is going to be there again (and yeah, a lot of other excellent writers as well!), and what's life without getting your picture taken annually with one of your literary influences? I just need to figure out how to get there without a car and with no money. . . .

I want to liveblog it this year. But, unless the hotel has suddenly decided to enter the 21st century, I am not sure that is viable. Their site claims that they have wireless in the public areas, but I am skeptical. Freakin' Motel 6 has a better Internet setup than the Burlington Marriott.

---Reading: I have a healthy pile to tackle. I want to re-read some Delany, get to Kiernan's The Red Tree, Stapledon's The Star-Maker, and Cory Doctorow's For the Win (which I won in an Internet contest), and some of the Gene Wolfe short stuff in my library. I am still dabbling in The Secret History of Science Fiction and The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction.

---I must highly recommend Tinariwen's new album Imidiwan. Amazing desert blues. For more background on them check out this YouTube video. I tried to link to their MySpace page for tunes but got some rap music overlaid onto their music. Weird.

Quick!

I have a few announcements:

---My monthly Apex bloggination is up. It is about one of my favorite things, something that I believe is critically important to SF as a creative genre and as a community. There's more to say about it, certainly, but that is for later. For now, read, comment, pass it on.

---I am now Networked Blog. Please follow/like/stalk me. After I get 7 followers I get more exposure, which would be fab. But adding a photo costs $5/month. Urk.

---Working on my FoG column, after an emotionally tough day. Trying to make it light and fun. I will post it up as soon as it goes live.

Aetheric Ephemera: Another Step And Yet Another Edition

1) Aaaaand we're back! Let's start with some intriguing news: after a century of waiting, we will finally get to read Mark Twain's complete autobiography. The Independent has a pithy story on it. While some of it has been used by biographers and some bits were published by Twain to make ends meet in his final years, this will be the entire manuscript, which should prove very illuminating given how his views on many things (such as American imperialism) changed towards the end of his life.

2) There's a critique of the Nebula Award-winning The Windup Girl over at SFSignal. It's very spoilery so don't read it if that upsets you. Karen Burnham pins down some things about the book that weaken it for her. I think one of those has a lot of merit, which specifically relates to the ending and how the characters work. I agree less with her other critiques: that knowledge of Thailand might be necessary to understand the problems it has in the novel and that perhaps focusing on the events previous to this book (the Contraction, a great catastrophe triggered by the oil running out) would make the point more sharply. I was pleased that Bacigalupi focused on the Expansion, which has plenty of problems of its own, and even given recent events in Thailand, what happens in the novel felt different, not a product of Thailand as much as larger economic and material conditions in the world.

I like seeing these sorts of pieces, and the discussions they spawn. While I think some of the critique misses the mark, I appreciate that she chose this popular and well-received book for more scrutiny. I thought that the book was one of the best I read last year, and what I found disquieting was the deus ex machina that appeared near the end and tied up the book too neatly. After the struggles and complexities Bacigalupi presents, it was a bit unsettling to have a rather pat ending. Despite those complaints, I think it is a book that everyone should read and ponder.

3) My friend Michelle D. Sonnier writes about some recent yammering over Neil Gaiman. Speaking a library. And donating his speaking fee, which did not come from the library, to charity. This angered some people. Apparently he was even referred to as a "douche" and castigated for the temerity of his visit. I mean, for the love of Willy Pete people, what the hell?!?!?

I said a bit about my take on it over at Chelle's blog, but to build on what she discussed: why do artists consistently get shafted in American culture? Why is it OK for a movie star to make eleventy-billion dollars per movie, or for Sarah Effin' Palin to collect (for her own personal gain) monstrous speaker's fees to spout bullshit, but when a writer gives a talk and doesn't even take the money for himself, a hue & cry is raised? What is it that gets people so upset?

This extends past a single incident. Think about the Great E-Book Kerfuffle, where people dumped on the authors for wanting fair compensation for their efforts. People went to Amazon and left 1-star reviews of books they had not read, because a certain publishing house had printed the author's book, or an author has spoken up about the issue. People went onto the Kindle community and caterwauled about greedy writers and the unfairness of being asked to pay more than the artificially-depressed prices Amazon had created to leverage the market. A lot of readers were quite put-out that authors wanted to make a living at their work, and considered them charlatans for asking to be paid for months or years of creative labor.

There's more to the E-Book issue than that, but the furor over artists asking for compensation that is a fraction of movie stars or political demagogues is strange and unsettling. I really wonder what it is that upsets people?

Time Passing

I apologize for the lack of writing in this blog for the past month. It has been a humdinger of a time for me, and I have woefully neglected this blog. I hope to return to it soon, with more vigor and joy (and quantity of posts) than before.

For now, here is some recent writing for folks to check out: my latest Forces of Geek column, and last month's Apex blog piece. Enjoy!