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Twenty-one guns to greet the Gilded Age
Readercon! Starts in four days! Look at this schedule I've got:
Being Vague to Make Space for Horror
Thursday 8:00 PM
Stephen Graham Jones, Darcie Little Badger (m), Sonya Taaffe, teri.zin, Paul Tremblay
In a 2016 blog post, Peter MacDonald argued that many creepypasta stories—unsettling urban legends that have been copied and pasted around the Internet—undermine their effectiveness as works of horror by providing overly concrete answers in the final stretch. Panelists will discuss whether this can be generalized to other horror stories—ones that less obviously blur the line between fiction and reality—and consider the importance to horror of ambiguity around the fantastic and supernatural.
Reading: Sonya Taaffe
Friday 4:30 PM
Sonya Taaffe
(Distinct possibility of nonfiction here. Or fiction in progress. Come find out!)
The White Space Around the Words: The Camaraderie of Poetry and Comedy
Saturday 1:00 PM
Amal El-Mohtar, Greer Gilman, Julia Rios, Romie Stott (m), Sonya Taaffe
In a 2018 interview, comedian Dylan Moran said, "The verbal fun of standup is much more like poetry than prose . . . because a lot of it is about elision, suggestion, inference, the white space around the words. They're much closer than people think, poetry and jokes." Our panelists explore this similarity between poetry and comedy, sharing some of their favorite examples of wordplay that works within the white space.
Dramatic Readings from the Ig Nobel Prizes
Saturday 3:00 PM
Marc Abrahams (m), C.S.E. Cooney, Rose Fox, Heath Miller, Sonya Taaffe
Highlights from Ig Nobel prize-winning studies and patents are 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.
Lloyd Alexander, Existentialist
Sunday 11:00 AM
C.S.E. Cooney, Andrea Martinez Corbin, Chris Gerwel, Marissa Lingen (m), Sonya Taaffe
Lloyd Alexander, translator of Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote an existentialist epic fantasy series. As Jesse Schotter writes on Full Stop, "The end of The High King, and Taran’s choice to remain in Prydain . . . salvage[s] the idea of free will within the deterministic framework of the genre." How did existentialism influence Alexander's other work (Time Cat, the Westmark trilogy)? What are other examples of existentialist speculative fiction epics? With the present deconstruction of prophecy-driven epics, how can writers learn from Alexander's work?
The Peril of Being Disbelieved
Sunday 12:00 PM
Meg Elison (m), Gwynne Garfinkle, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Sonya Taaffe, teri.zin
In the 2017 essay "The Peril of Being Disbelieved: Horror and the Intuition of Women" at Tor.com, Emily Asher-Perrin examines the horror trope of the woman who intuits that a situation is dangerous but is ignored by those around her, and how that trope mirrors society's refusal to believe women more generally. Panelists will explore the trope, whether and how it is being subverted, and the ways in which other marginalized groups are also disbelieved.
I have the usual problem of desperately needing to sleep and convince my immune system not to let me down at the last minute, but I am looking forward. Who can I hope to see there?
Being Vague to Make Space for Horror
Thursday 8:00 PM
Stephen Graham Jones, Darcie Little Badger (m), Sonya Taaffe, teri.zin, Paul Tremblay
In a 2016 blog post, Peter MacDonald argued that many creepypasta stories—unsettling urban legends that have been copied and pasted around the Internet—undermine their effectiveness as works of horror by providing overly concrete answers in the final stretch. Panelists will discuss whether this can be generalized to other horror stories—ones that less obviously blur the line between fiction and reality—and consider the importance to horror of ambiguity around the fantastic and supernatural.
Reading: Sonya Taaffe
Friday 4:30 PM
Sonya Taaffe
(Distinct possibility of nonfiction here. Or fiction in progress. Come find out!)
The White Space Around the Words: The Camaraderie of Poetry and Comedy
Saturday 1:00 PM
Amal El-Mohtar, Greer Gilman, Julia Rios, Romie Stott (m), Sonya Taaffe
In a 2018 interview, comedian Dylan Moran said, "The verbal fun of standup is much more like poetry than prose . . . because a lot of it is about elision, suggestion, inference, the white space around the words. They're much closer than people think, poetry and jokes." Our panelists explore this similarity between poetry and comedy, sharing some of their favorite examples of wordplay that works within the white space.
Dramatic Readings from the Ig Nobel Prizes
Saturday 3:00 PM
Marc Abrahams (m), C.S.E. Cooney, Rose Fox, Heath Miller, Sonya Taaffe
Highlights from Ig Nobel prize-winning studies and patents are 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.
Lloyd Alexander, Existentialist
Sunday 11:00 AM
C.S.E. Cooney, Andrea Martinez Corbin, Chris Gerwel, Marissa Lingen (m), Sonya Taaffe
Lloyd Alexander, translator of Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote an existentialist epic fantasy series. As Jesse Schotter writes on Full Stop, "The end of The High King, and Taran’s choice to remain in Prydain . . . salvage[s] the idea of free will within the deterministic framework of the genre." How did existentialism influence Alexander's other work (Time Cat, the Westmark trilogy)? What are other examples of existentialist speculative fiction epics? With the present deconstruction of prophecy-driven epics, how can writers learn from Alexander's work?
The Peril of Being Disbelieved
Sunday 12:00 PM
Meg Elison (m), Gwynne Garfinkle, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Sonya Taaffe, teri.zin
In the 2017 essay "The Peril of Being Disbelieved: Horror and the Intuition of Women" at Tor.com, Emily Asher-Perrin examines the horror trope of the woman who intuits that a situation is dangerous but is ignored by those around her, and how that trope mirrors society's refusal to believe women more generally. Panelists will explore the trope, whether and how it is being subverted, and the ways in which other marginalized groups are also disbelieved.
I have the usual problem of desperately needing to sleep and convince my immune system not to let me down at the last minute, but I am looking forward. Who can I hope to see there?
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Awesome!
*hugs*
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Likewise!
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Nine
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I'm really looking forward!
Wishing your immune system and circadian rhythm a halycon week.
From your mouth . . .
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Thank you!
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Absolutely! I'm looking forward to all of them.
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Yay!
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"The sword only replied, 'Give me to drink.'"
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I'm sorry not to see you!
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Looking forward to catching some of your panels--you are unfailingly amazing. Hopefully you'll get to be well or a least vaguely rested, so you can have a truly spectacular time.
I don't know that there's another con that forces me to make quite so many hard choices among panels. Very much looking forward to this.
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Cool! What games are you running?
Looking forward to catching some of your panels--you are unfailingly amazing. Hopefully you'll get to be well or a least vaguely rested, so you can have a truly spectacular time.
Thank you. I think that would be lovely.
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Plus some quick board games that can be played in 20 minutes or so. Haiku Warrior, Marrying Mr. Darcy, Channel A (a wild card game about pitching new anime shows).
And some one page RPGs to hand out: Lasers and Feelings, maybe Advertising and Antiheroes, a Mad Man pastiche I'm working on, if I can get the draft in rough shape.
And something electronic: probably Monster Prom, a humorous dating sim visual novel, that lets you choose your monster, choose your pronoun, and gives you the freedom to chose to romance any of the other characters, because monster don't like boys or girls, they like monsters.
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I really don't play games, but I approve of this concept.
Monster Prom, a humorous dating sim visual novel, that lets you choose your monster, choose your pronoun, and gives you the freedom to chose to romance any of the other characters, because monster don't like boys or girls, they like monsters.
Nice!