Worldcon 2019: Day 4
Aug. 25th, 2019 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12This was the last full day of the convention, and it was a really packed one! As always, panel titles and descriptions are in plain text, with my remarks in italics.
Fantasy: beyond Europe, with panelists Zen Cho, Fonda Lee and Tasha Suri, moderated by Nicole Givens Kurtz.
Increasingly, fantasy literature that reflects a world outside the ‘traditional’ Western European-based mould is being published, promoted, and celebrated. How does fantasy include different cultures and narratives? Who gets to tell these stories? How does it change our tropes and types? And what will the future of fantasy bring?
Tasha Suri and Zen Cho are excellent speakers, and work well together, so I was really looking forward to this panel. All panelists emphasised that the internet had been an absolute blessing for them, and for readers in general — it connects people with stories and other fans and professionals, meaning that the danger of a single narrative dominating is much diminished. This was not to say that non-US/European authors, and publishing non-European fantasy are without struggles, but things are a lot less bad than they used to be. The authors also acknowledged that their own work had been made easier by the struggles of earlier authors from similar cultural backgrounds, who had had much more of an uphill battle to convince publishers that their stories would sell. My one small quibble with this panel was the moderating style — I recognise that all moderators have their preferred approach, but my preference is for moderators who prompt the panelists to speak when necessary, and then sit back and let the conversation unfold, rather than also answering questions themselves.
The moderator in this panel took the second approach, and it meant less time for panelist discussion or audience questions.
After this panel, I dashed downstairs to begin queuing for Hugo Awards ceremony wristbands. I stood outside for an hour in the rain, but emerged victorious. I had been determined to get seats for the ceremony, so from my perspective queuing in the rain was well worth it.
Matthias and I then grabbed some lunch, before queuing for the next panel.
How national identity is portrayed in SFF, with panelists Anna Gryaznova, Ada Palmer, and Francesco Verso, moderated by Dr Bradford Lyau. (There was also another panelist whose name isn't listed in the program and which I unfortunately can't remember).
Speculative fiction can offer authors a space, removed from reality, to consider questions of national identity. How do nations respond to disasters? Do authors use cultural stereotypes as a shorthand for national identity, and where have these come from? The panel will discuss the ways SFF provides a window into how nations view themselves and others, and what that means in a broader context.
This was, unfortunately, a great disappointment. I was expecting something more along the lines of a discussion of odd, left-field depictions of national identity — speculative fiction such as Ada Palmer's or Malka Older's which imagined a world or a future where national identity had become somewhat obsolete, replaced by something unexpected or unusual. Instead, we got a very superficial discussion of the types of common cultural stereotypes we see reproduced in fiction, and how frustrating these can be. Ada Palmer kept trying to wrench the discussion back to a more interesting direction, and kept being stymied by the moderator, who was really not able to guide the discussion to the depth it deserved.
After this, Matthias and I went upstairs for a kaffeeklatsch with Amal El-Mohtar, who answered or questions about her work, how she approaches writing, collaborating with Max Gladstone, Tolkien, and her glorious 'Oracle of Buses' persona on Twitter. This was a lovely event, and I'm grateful to have been able to sign up for one of the eight places, although I got an odd vibe from one of the other attendees which meant the conversation had a slight undercurrent of tension. However, I was really happy to be able to tell Amal how much I appreciated the way she writes about (and appears to experience) music — I've never seen anyone else capture my own feelings (perceiving music as a narrative, obsessing over lyrics, and being completely overwhelmed on both a sensory and emotional level whenever a song really speaks to me) about music the way she does.
I followed up the kaffeeklatsch with a brief meet-up withng_moonmoth in person for the first time. As was becoming frustratingly familiar, there was nowhere to sit down, but it was nice to share our respective convention experiences nonetheless.
Following this, Matthias and I nipped back to the hotel for a quick dinner before joiningnaye and doctorskuld in the auditorium for the Hugo Awards ceremony. This was an absolutely marvellous experience, and barring one category, the winner in every category was either my number one choice, or something/someone I didn't put first, but could see why other people had. These were probably my highlights from the awards:
Jeannette Ng's win for the Campbell, and her electrifying, furious, passionate speech that began 'John W. Campbell was a fucking fascist!', and, more importantly, urged the audience to take note of what is going on in Hong Kong, do what we can to support the protesters, and not look away.
![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
likhain's win for Best Fan Artist, her glorious winged gold crown, and her moving acceptance speech, especially the part in Tagalog.
Zen Cho's win for Best Novelette — 'If At First You Don't Succeed...' was one of my favourite works of fiction (of any length) last year.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ladybusiness's win for Best Fanzine. I so appreciate the work they do, and the space they provide, where there is an emphasis on discussing and celebrating what we like, rather than deploring things we hate.
Elsa Sjunneson-Henry's acceptance speech for Uncanny Magazine's win (and Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction!, which she co-edited).
Above all, Archive of Our Own winning Best Related Work, and being in the room when Naomi Novik, accepting the award, invited all fanworks creators who felt part of the Ao3 community, to stand up and share in the win. It was so incredible to be there, and to stand up beside naye and doctorskuld, and all the many other audience members who are my fellow members of the transformative works community (including many of the pro authors and artists nominated for Hugos).
After the ceremony, Matthias and I headed back to the hotel room, where it took me a very long time to come down from the high.
Fantasy: beyond Europe, with panelists Zen Cho, Fonda Lee and Tasha Suri, moderated by Nicole Givens Kurtz.
Increasingly, fantasy literature that reflects a world outside the ‘traditional’ Western European-based mould is being published, promoted, and celebrated. How does fantasy include different cultures and narratives? Who gets to tell these stories? How does it change our tropes and types? And what will the future of fantasy bring?
Tasha Suri and Zen Cho are excellent speakers, and work well together, so I was really looking forward to this panel. All panelists emphasised that the internet had been an absolute blessing for them, and for readers in general — it connects people with stories and other fans and professionals, meaning that the danger of a single narrative dominating is much diminished. This was not to say that non-US/European authors, and publishing non-European fantasy are without struggles, but things are a lot less bad than they used to be. The authors also acknowledged that their own work had been made easier by the struggles of earlier authors from similar cultural backgrounds, who had had much more of an uphill battle to convince publishers that their stories would sell. My one small quibble with this panel was the moderating style — I recognise that all moderators have their preferred approach, but my preference is for moderators who prompt the panelists to speak when necessary, and then sit back and let the conversation unfold, rather than also answering questions themselves.
The moderator in this panel took the second approach, and it meant less time for panelist discussion or audience questions.
After this panel, I dashed downstairs to begin queuing for Hugo Awards ceremony wristbands. I stood outside for an hour in the rain, but emerged victorious. I had been determined to get seats for the ceremony, so from my perspective queuing in the rain was well worth it.
Matthias and I then grabbed some lunch, before queuing for the next panel.
How national identity is portrayed in SFF, with panelists Anna Gryaznova, Ada Palmer, and Francesco Verso, moderated by Dr Bradford Lyau. (There was also another panelist whose name isn't listed in the program and which I unfortunately can't remember).
Speculative fiction can offer authors a space, removed from reality, to consider questions of national identity. How do nations respond to disasters? Do authors use cultural stereotypes as a shorthand for national identity, and where have these come from? The panel will discuss the ways SFF provides a window into how nations view themselves and others, and what that means in a broader context.
This was, unfortunately, a great disappointment. I was expecting something more along the lines of a discussion of odd, left-field depictions of national identity — speculative fiction such as Ada Palmer's or Malka Older's which imagined a world or a future where national identity had become somewhat obsolete, replaced by something unexpected or unusual. Instead, we got a very superficial discussion of the types of common cultural stereotypes we see reproduced in fiction, and how frustrating these can be. Ada Palmer kept trying to wrench the discussion back to a more interesting direction, and kept being stymied by the moderator, who was really not able to guide the discussion to the depth it deserved.
After this, Matthias and I went upstairs for a kaffeeklatsch with Amal El-Mohtar, who answered or questions about her work, how she approaches writing, collaborating with Max Gladstone, Tolkien, and her glorious 'Oracle of Buses' persona on Twitter. This was a lovely event, and I'm grateful to have been able to sign up for one of the eight places, although I got an odd vibe from one of the other attendees which meant the conversation had a slight undercurrent of tension. However, I was really happy to be able to tell Amal how much I appreciated the way she writes about (and appears to experience) music — I've never seen anyone else capture my own feelings (perceiving music as a narrative, obsessing over lyrics, and being completely overwhelmed on both a sensory and emotional level whenever a song really speaks to me) about music the way she does.
I followed up the kaffeeklatsch with a brief meet-up with
ng_moonmoth in person for the first time. As was becoming frustratingly familiar, there was nowhere to sit down, but it was nice to share our respective convention experiences nonetheless.Following this, Matthias and I nipped back to the hotel for a quick dinner before joining
naye and doctorskuld in the auditorium for the Hugo Awards ceremony. This was an absolutely marvellous experience, and barring one category, the winner in every category was either my number one choice, or something/someone I didn't put first, but could see why other people had. These were probably my highlights from the awards:ladybusiness's win for Best Fanzine. I so appreciate the work they do, and the space they provide, where there is an emphasis on discussing and celebrating what we like, rather than deploring things we hate.naye and doctorskuld, and all the many other audience members who are my fellow members of the transformative works community (including many of the pro authors and artists nominated for Hugos).After the ceremony, Matthias and I headed back to the hotel room, where it took me a very long time to come down from the high.