Beyond Selidor

Matthias and I got back from Dublin yesterday, having spent six days in the city enjoying our first ever Worldcon! I'm going to take a leaf out of naye's book, and post mini recaps of each day (I'm in awe that she was able to do so while the convention was going on — that's dedication!). I'll list the panels I attended, followed by a few sentences in summary. If you want a more blow by blow, but less in-depth recap, I was tweeting a lot, over at ronnidolorosa.

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We arrived in Dublin on the Wednesday before the convention began, picked up our badges and checked into our very swish hotel, before heading off into the centre of town for a little bit of exploring, and to meet two sraffie friends of mine for dinner. Matthias hadn't been to Dublin since he was a toddler, so it was great that he was able to see a little bit of the town before the convention got going.

After that, it was panels, crowds, and so. much. queuing.

I will write the titles, panellists, and panel descriptions in plain text, and my own thoughts in italics.



Writing from non-western perspectives, with panelists Tasha Suri and Vida Cruz, and Yasser Bhajett moderating.

The number of non-western novels and stories in SFF has increased over the last 20 years, as has visibility of existing fiction. Our panel looks at some of these novels, discussing favourites and sharing recommendations. We’ll take a look at how the novels are written, as well as the differences in story patterns, characters, and narrative styles. Let’s celebrate these novels and look at ways to further expand the publishing of non-western cultures within SFF literature.

This was a relaxed panel that felt like a group of people having a conversation. If you're familiar with the ongoing discussion about the need to broaden the SFF field to include marginalised perspectives, most of the content would have resonated. One interesting frustration raised by Suri was the difficulties of researching (one's own) non-western culture if all the sources are in languages you don't speak, or written in English from the biased perspective of colonising cultures. There's a lot of reading between the lines and drawing out hidden stories from such frustrating sources.

Dragons and debutantes: fantasy set in the Regency, with panelists Zen Cho, Heather Rose Jones and Susan de Guardiola and moderated by Mary Robinette Kowal.

The Regency period in the UK, the time of the Napoleonic wars in most of Europe, has long been a rich source of inspiration for fantasy novels – including Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series and Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. How has the Regency been used as an inspiration for fantasy writing? Why does this period in particular have such an abiding appeal?

Zen Cho is such a marvellous panelist — I love listening to her speak about everything, because she's so funny, and what she says is such a great blend of humour, enthusiasm, and intellect. Mary Robinette was an exemplary moderator, particularly in how she managed the audience questions, which she got at the start of the panel to guide the discussion, rather than at the end. The panelists again raised the problem of sources for research, which can often ignore or hide the presence or experiences of marginalised individuals.

I know my worth: the women of the Marvel movies, with panelists Peter V. Brett, Karina Steffens, Benjamin Rosenbaum, and Cassie Parkes, moderated by Debra Jess.

Marvel properties on the big screen have often been lambasted as having poorly conceptualised depictions of women: is this deserved? From the introduction of Black Widow through the animated Spider Gwen to the wild popularity of Shuri and Okoye from Black Panther and now Captain Marvel as a leading lady, have women acquired better stories or just more screen time? What still needs improving? And how do the Marvel women compare to the critical acclaim of DC’s Wonder Woman?

A bit of a rushed panel, and I'm not sure they chose to focus on the most interesting characters — I would have preferred some discussion of Shuri, Okoye and the other women of Black Panther over the discussion we got of Spider Gwen and Wanda. Half the panelists were emphatic that Natasha had been fridged, and the others were emphatic that she had not, so a lot of time was taken up arguing about this.

Reviewing books, art and media, with panelists Leticia Lara, David Ferguson, and Karen Haber, moderated by D Franklin.

Every creator needs reviews, but writing useful reviews takes skill and care since they are critical building blocks for a creator’s career. So what should reviewers keep in mind? What makes a well-written review? What makes a review ‘good’ – or ‘bad’, for that matter? And what should you do when an author responds? Reviewers share their experience, advice, and tips for reading and writing reviews.

This panel didn't go into as much depth as I would have liked, given that reviewing is one of the main ways I engage with stories, but it was nice to see how the discussion emphasised reviewers' purposes in putting their work out into the world, and the need to be clear on what those purposes and intentions were, and that achieving an objective, unbiased review is impossible and not something to aim for.

Reading by Ada Palmer.

Ada read a bit from the fourth (unpublished) book from her Terra Ignota series, and a little bit from the first book, Too Like the Lightning. It was delightful to witness her palpable joy in this weird, difficult, incredible series of books, and I loved being in a crowd of fellow fans. She invited everyone who had read the first three books to join her for an as-yet unscheduled spoiler chat about the series, and got our email addresses to organise this. More on Ada Palmer below.



I was able to meet up with schneefink for coffee (and in person for the first time) in the morning, and we then kept bumping into each other throughout the convention, and I met auroracloud in person for the first time, when we joined each other for the Regency panel and then had a chat over coffee afterwards.

In one of those bizarrely serendipitous moments that kept happening throughout the con, Matthias and I bumped into doctorskuld and naye while we were grabbing a sandwich. And while we were sitting around on benches outside the convention centre, who should appear but Ada Palmer (along with Jo Walton and several other friends)? Now, by coincidence doctorskuld knows Ada Palmer from back in the day, and the two fell to chatting. This led to all of us being introduced, and being given loads of Terra Ignota swag, including stickers for our respective Hives. (For those of you who have read this series, I am absolutely, emphatically a Cousin, and could be nothing else.) Most amusingly, doctorskuld had been given no cutlery with which to eat lunch, leading to Ada Palmer loaning a pair of reusable steel chopsticks. This led to our quartet (doctorskuld, naye, Matthias and me) dubbing ourselves Team Ada Palmer's Reusable Chopsticks — and a better group of fellow first-time Worldcon attendees I could not have found! (See my Twitter thread about this rather bizarre encounter.)

We gave the chopsticks back after Ada Palmer's reading, and the four of us then went off to have dinner in a tapas place that brewed its own beer, recommended to me by sraffie friends who live in Dublin. After that we went our separate ways, and collapsed into bed, minds buzzing.