Be Careful Among Dem Scottish*
So I have my final programming schedule for Interaction (this year's World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in Glasgow in early August), which is curiously frontloaded--maybe they didn't have enough people showing up early in the program? (Or programme, to be locally correct.)
Thursday 2:00pm Fem-Bots and Faeries (1.5 hrs)
Judith Clute, Paul Cockburn, Karen Haber, Madeleine E. Robins, Jannie Shea, Delphyne Woods
"Although we no longer live with the nipple shortage of the 1950s, fantasy art remains unreconstructed." Why hasn't feminism affected sf and fantasy art - or has it?
Friday 10:00am Kaffeeklatsch
Friday 12:00 noonThe Return of the Queen: Writing Feminism in a Medieval World
Lillian Stewart Carl, Ellen Kushner, Julianne Lee, Diana L. Paxson, Madeleine E. Robins (M)
The "real" Middle Ages is not known for fostering feminism. Apart from the upper aristocracy, few women had any power or freedom of action, and that was limited by the conventions of male society. What are the effects of introducing feminism to a medieval setting?
Sunday 11:30am Reading (0.5 hrs)
Monday 11:00am Autographing
I suspect I'm on the Feminism in Art panel because of my sordid history in comic book publishing. That could be fun. And while I'm interested in the Medieval World (the next book I write may be set in Medieval Italy, so I've been reading up) I am not a specialist on the Medieval World--but I'm moderating, and it might be all I need to do is show up and keep order.
As for the rest, I have yet to have a kaffeeklatsch anywhere except at Boskone where anyone showed up to talk to me, but at 10 am, if the coffee's there, I'll show up and see what happens. Ditto the autographing (especially since Terry Pratchett is scheduled for the same slot, and I suspect there will be a few more people lined up to see him than me). But I like doing readings, and I generally enjoy doing panels. Just hope, since my plane gets in to Glasgow at 8am on Thursday morning, that I'm not too totally fried to navigate a successful sentence or two for my two p.m. panel.
*adapted from Jan Rubes's line in Witness, which my father quotes at me from time to time.
Thursday 2:00pm Fem-Bots and Faeries (1.5 hrs)
Judith Clute, Paul Cockburn, Karen Haber, Madeleine E. Robins, Jannie Shea, Delphyne Woods
"Although we no longer live with the nipple shortage of the 1950s, fantasy art remains unreconstructed." Why hasn't feminism affected sf and fantasy art - or has it?
Friday 10:00am Kaffeeklatsch
Friday 12:00 noonThe Return of the Queen: Writing Feminism in a Medieval World
Lillian Stewart Carl, Ellen Kushner, Julianne Lee, Diana L. Paxson, Madeleine E. Robins (M)
The "real" Middle Ages is not known for fostering feminism. Apart from the upper aristocracy, few women had any power or freedom of action, and that was limited by the conventions of male society. What are the effects of introducing feminism to a medieval setting?
Sunday 11:30am Reading (0.5 hrs)
Monday 11:00am Autographing
I suspect I'm on the Feminism in Art panel because of my sordid history in comic book publishing. That could be fun. And while I'm interested in the Medieval World (the next book I write may be set in Medieval Italy, so I've been reading up) I am not a specialist on the Medieval World--but I'm moderating, and it might be all I need to do is show up and keep order.
As for the rest, I have yet to have a kaffeeklatsch anywhere except at Boskone where anyone showed up to talk to me, but at 10 am, if the coffee's there, I'll show up and see what happens. Ditto the autographing (especially since Terry Pratchett is scheduled for the same slot, and I suspect there will be a few more people lined up to see him than me). But I like doing readings, and I generally enjoy doing panels. Just hope, since my plane gets in to Glasgow at 8am on Thursday morning, that I'm not too totally fried to navigate a successful sentence or two for my two p.m. panel.
*adapted from Jan Rubes's line in Witness, which my father quotes at me from time to time.
posted by Madeleine Robins at 8:51 AM
6 Comments:
Worldcon is a huge thing--a US Worldcon typically has 7-10,000 people attending: writers, publishers, readers, fans, media personalities, gamers, etc. There are generally five or six guests of honor who get wined, dined, and paid for; the rest of the panelists are simply members of the convention who volunteer, or are invited to volunteer, to be on panels. I've never been to a Worldcon more far-flung than the one in Toronto a few years ago, and each Worldcon is run by a different group of people (not all of whom are local to that year's venue) so how the guests are treated and what they do varies widely. I've been treated, ur, cavalierly, or very well. I've been at Worldcons which were spectacularly ill-organized, and others that appeared to hum along like well ordered Swiss watches. With smaller, more local conventions, they frequently offer panelists one or more free memberships in the convention in order to entice writers, agents, and other professionals to come. With Worldcons, because they are so huge, and the money involved is really significant, they generally don't offer a free membership, but will reimburse you for your membership after the fact, if they're running in the black. And there's always a Green Room with coffee and snacks, which helps if you're there on a budget.
C.F., if you live near Anaheim, next year I believe the Worldcon is going to be there, within strolling distance of Disneyland. When I first started going to conventions there was more people dressing up in costumes and the like (like something from the convention scenes in Galaxy Quest); these days it's less so. And a big con tends to split into the people whose primary interest is in gaming, or film, or TV, or art, or costuming, or...oh, yeah, SF and Fantasy books and publishing and writing and that stuff. A Worldcon can be pretty overwhelming--but then, so can any convention, if you go unwary. Take your vitamins, get enough sleep, and retire when sensory overload threatens.
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Nah. They are, in fact, mildly alternate-history, but neither SF nor Fantasy in the stricter sense. Still, I have published one dark urban fantasy (The Stone War), one Marvel Comics superhero novel (Daredevil: The Cutting Edge), and about a dozen SF/fantasy short stories over the years. And I've worked in comics and in SF publishing. I cover the waterfront, me.
Yup.
Holmes is good at emoting wryness and ... um, well, being wry. Oh, and looking cute.
---L.
You only asked if I'd seen it, CF... 8 )
I thought Batman was pretty good--certainly way better than the campy goof-fest it had become in its last incarnation. It was too long, but not unbearably so, and I thought, given the burden of all the mythology which had to be stuffed into it, that they managed it pretty well. I was pleased that they didn't turn the movie over to the villains, one of the great flaws of the last iteration of Bat-stuff, where you got less interested in Batman than in The Joker, Mr. Freeze, the Penguin, Catwoman, the Riddler, and all the other high-profile talent bits.
Katie Holmes does reasonable "earnest," which--aside from her prettiness--was what I thought they needed. And I thought Christian Bale was fine: he has some gravitas as well as looks. I particularly liked the "drunk at the party" scene. Michael Caine, whom I adore, was a splendid Alfred, and unless Alfred works, the whole thing goes to hell in a handbag...
But that's just my opinion.
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