I batter books with my barren heart

[sovay]

My schedule for this year's Arisia is compact and somewhat memorial:

Dramatic Readings from the Ig Nobel Prizes
Friday 10 PM
Marc Abrahams (m), Michelle Liguori, James Bredt

Highlights from Ig Nobel prize-winning studies and patents, presented in dramatic mini-readings by luminaries and experts (in some field). The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions about the research presented—answers will be based on the expertise of the presenters, who may have a different expertise than the researchers.

[In previous years I have read "The Number 13 as a Castration Fantasy" and "The highest-ranking rooster has priority to announce the break of dawn." Come discover with me what abomination of science I will have to explain this time.]

Harlan Ellison: In Memoriam
Saturday 1 PM
Michael A. Burstein (m), Robert B. Finegold M.D., John Trimble, Lisa Hertel, Sonya Taaffe

Harlan Ellison was one of the great short story writers of all time, and one of the field's larger-than-life figures. He was also someone whose bad behavior often undercut his achievements and even the good deeds he attempted to do. We'll discuss both his literary legacy and his personal one. Note that this panel will likely discuss topics that are uncomfortable for some people.

Ursula K. Le Guin: In Memoriam
Saturday 2:30 PM
Trisha J. Wooldridge (m.), Mark W. Richards, Sarah Smith, A.J. Odasso, Sonya Taaffe

SFWA Grand Master Ursula K. Le Guin passed away early last year at the age of 88. Best known for her Earthsea series, as well as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Disposessed, Le Guin consistently pushed themes of identity and social structure in her narratives. Join our panelists as they remember her life and works, and share what Le Guin meant to us all, as well as her influence on the genre as a whole.

Nightstand Readings
Saturday 7 PM
Timothy Goyette, Kel Bachus, Sonya Taaffe

Come find the next title to set on your nightstand for your bedtime reading routine, with authors reading to you from their own original works of fiction.

[I may read from either Forget the Sleepless Shores or new fiction. Come find out!]

Sing-along: Yiddish Songs
Sunday 11:30 AM
Anabel Graetz (m.), Sonya Taaffe, Marnen Laibow-Koser

There is a rich tradition of song from Jewish communities in Russia and Eastern Europe. Come sing along with some of these. Songs of work and play will be featured; no liturgical songs will be included. (Participatory sing-along with words provided.)

What We DIDN'T Steal from Tolkien
Sunday 5:30 PM
Kristin Janz (m.), James Hailer, Bekah Maren Anderson, Ken Gale, Sonya Taaffe

Tolkien, for all his flaws, did things in his work that revolutionized the literary landscape, yet so much of the deep, interesting, and nuanced aspects of his writing get overlooked in favor of the things at the surface level—the things that became trope-namers or cliches of the genre, the ways he influenced authors who came after. But what parts of Tolkien have been overlooked? What did he do that was worthwhile, yet which modern fantasy authors haven't emulated?

And Monday is spatch's birthday, so this works out nicely. Who can I expect to see there?

Comments

[selkie]

It looks good, this schedule! You may have time to "eat food" or "sit!"

[cmcmck]

He did all the stuff that the film makers left out and all of which matter hugely to anyone English with a knowledge of our folklore and legends!

And I wish people would occasionally remember that he was primarily a philologist and one of absolute genius!

[tree_and_leaf]

I love Tolkien, but fandom panels I see on him often make me yawn a bit, because it either seems done to death or else what train spotters dismissively call "rivet counting", but that sounds absolutely fascinating.

[gwynnega]

The Ig Nobel Prize readings always sound like a lot of fun.

[negothick]

That is indeed a memorial-filled schedule. Even with the Tolkien panel, you're still in the elegaic mode.

[kore]

What did he do that was worthwhile, yet which modern fantasy authors haven't emulated?

I guess my first reaction would be all the songs, and/or poetry -- but like Peter S. Beagle said the best of the songs start singing themselves off the page, and the narrative voice has the vocabulary and even cadences of epic poetry and often the characters do too. Singing is such a huge part of that world -- and people do it so naturally and openly -- but it just appears in little bits in all the adaptations. Digging around, I found this post about the Tolkien Ensemble:

The Tolkien Ensemble was established in 1995 by Caspar Reiff of the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and by Peter Hall of the London College of Music. In the next few years, they managed to assemble a group of fellow musicians equally enthusiastic about the project and began recording and performing concerts to high acclaim worldwide. At a 1999 concert at Exeter College in Oxford, even the Professor’s daughter Priscilla Tolkien praised their accomplishments.
In 2001, the Ensemble collaborated with renowned actor Christopher Lee, who narrates some poetic tracks and is the voice of Treebeard in songs from The Two Towers. The Ensemble initially released separate collections of pieces in albums titled An Evening in Rivendell, A Night in Rivendell (both 2000), At Dawn in Rivendell (2002), and Leaving Rivendell (2005). In 2006, all of their pieces were released in a Complete Songs and Poems collection, with the pieces arranged as they appear in the books. They were also given permission to use illustrations by HM Queen Magrethe II of Denmark for their album covers.

http://tolkien-ensemble.net/musik/musik.html

I don't know if they sound right, but it's interesting that they tried. (I dunno if I'm right either, the first thing that leaped to my mind was "The singing always gets left out." There are books that feature singing, but I don't remember a lot that have as many actual songs and poems as LOTR does.)

[a_reasonable_man]

I wish I could come by this year! I'm curious to hear how it goes.

[genarti]

I'll be there! (Barring weather, but it looks like the snow will be over the weekend when I'm in Boston, and I expect to be able to come down Thursday and go up Monday without undue difficulty, given snow tires.)

I hope very much I can make it to that Tolkien panel, which sounds so far up my alley it's in my backyard. (I have a potential conflict, but we'll see how things shake out.) Either way, if you end up with free time it'd be great to meet up for food or something, and if not then we'll wave in passing and see each other properly some other time!

My Arisia is very lightly scheduled this year: Rousing Chorus Songs on Friday at 7, Songs of Protest on Saturday at 1, and the potential Tolkien-conflict that I'm the backup teacher for Scottish Country Dancing on Sunday just in case the scheduled teacher is struck down by a cold or something. I could wish for more thinky-talky panels, but on the other hand this gives me lots of time to attend thinky-talky panels, which is always excellent.

Arisia

[dramaticirony]

I'm looking forward to hearing people talk about Le Guin, and regret being on a conflicting panel and missing the reckoning of Ellison's legacy.

Next month at the Boston Sci Fi Film Fest we're getting the regional premier of Worlds of Ursula Le Guin which is quite exciting, as Arwen Curry is a solid documentary director (and a writer) and she had access to Le Guin over a decade. (I love the SciFi film fest, but its literary docs can fall in the "nerd who bought a nice camera pointing it awkwardly at talking heads chosen apparently at random" school of filmmaking.)

Have a great con!

[lokifan]

The Tolkein panel sounds fascinating, which I say as someone who doesn't especially get on with him or his imitators. And I'm sad my local con probably won't run this year - if it runs in 2020, I'm gonna suggest a Le Guin memorial panel.