Behold my Readercon schedule. I think it's even crazier than last year's.
Friday 12:00 Noon. Event
A Dramatic Reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts I & II
Inanna Arthen, Ron Drummond, Greer Gilman, Adam Golaski, Caitlín R. Kiernan, K. A. Laity, John Langan, Shira Lipkin, Faye Ringel, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Eric M. Van
(I will be reading Titania. Opposite![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
greygirlbeast's Oberon. Wish me luck.)
Friday 2:00 PM. Event
A Dramatic Reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts IV & V
Inanna Arthen, Ron Drummond, Scott Edelman, Jim Freund, Greer Gilman, Adam Golaski, Walter H. Hunt, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Mary Robinette Kowal, K. A. Laity, John Langan, Faye Ringel, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Eric M. Van
Friday 4:00 PM. Group Reading
Mythic Delirium / Goblin Fruit Group Reading (60 min.)
Mike Allen and Amal El-Mohtar (hosts), Erik Amundsen, Kate Baker, C.S.E. Cooney, Gemma Files, Francesca Forrest, Theodora Goss, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Shira Lipkin, Caitlyn Paxson, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente
Joint reading from Mythic Delirium, the biannual magazine of speculative poetry edited by Allen, and Goblin Fruit, the quarterly online zine of fantastical poetry edited by El-Mohtar and Jessica Wick, including samples from the recent "Mythic Fruit" and "Goblin Delirium" issues produced by a recent "editor swap."
Friday 5:00 PM. Panel
On the Beach on the Beach
Suzy McKee Charnas, John Crowley, Amanda Downum, Peter Straub, Sonya Taaffe (L)
We tend to think of comfort reading as not so far off from the beach book—by definition reassuring, non-taxing, a return to the familiar at a stressful moment in time. But what if your first encounter with a favorite book was less milk and cookies than five-alarm chili? Come and compare notes with fellow readers on the books you love dearly that initially puzzled, unsettled, or took you by surprise (and may still). Statistically, you can't be the only person in the field who opens up Pale Fire on a bad day.
Saturday 11:30 AM. Reading (30 min.)
Sonya Taaffe reads something that will fit in a half-hour time slot.
Saturday 1:00 PM. Talk / Discussion (60 min.)
Different and Equal Together: SF Satire in District 9
Andrea Hairston with discussion by Suzy McKee Charnas
Lurking behind every image, character, and plot twist in the biting sf satire (and Hugo nominee for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form) District 9 is the troubling question of the colonial and postcolonial age: how can we be different together? Satiric grappling with colonialism is a typical sf endeavor. District 9 troubles the notion that we inhabitants of the 21st century have zoomed through our terrible history and arrived at a postcolonial, post-apartheid present where, magically, we are all equal, and difference is no longer exploited or oppressed. In this militantly ironic film, characters are, regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity, equally guilty of horrific disdain for any "alien" life. Successful irony requires familiarity with the subject of the satire. If the satire in District 9 does not bounce off of an audience's knowledge of, e.g., Nigerian culture and history, how do we read Nigerian savagery in the film? Is District 9 caught in the colonial impulse it is trying to disrupt?
Saturday 3:00 PM. Event
The Rhysling Award Poetry Slan
Mike Allen MC), Erik Amundsen, Kate Baker, Leah Bobet, C.S.E. Cooney, Amal El-Mohtar, Gemma Files, Francesca Forrest, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Shira Lipkin, Caitlyn Paxson, Darrell Schweitzer, Sonya Taaffe, Cecilia Tan, Catherynne M. Valente
(A "poetry slan," to be confused with "poetry slam," is a poetry reading by sf folks, of course.) Climaxed by the presentation of this year's Rhysling Awards.
Saturday 7:00 PM. Panel
Comparing Translations Redux
Greer Gilman, Walter H. Hunt, Paul Park, Sonya Taaffe (L), Eric M. Van (L), Amy West
Back for the third time by popular demand! This time, our panelists will compare four translations of a passage from E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1814 masterwork of the fantastic, "The Golden Pot," while attendees follow along line-by-line. Two years there was a clear favorite among translations of Zamyatin, while in 2006 it was agreed that the best translation of Borges was a composite of all available versions. But what criteria, exactly, form our sense of "best"? Accessibility? Poetry? The original sentence structure? And if what we prize as readers of the target language is a flavor of the original, would a native German speaker concur with our ideas of "German"? Come explore these questions and more through the words of Ritchie Robertson, Joseph M. Hayse, Leonard J. Kent and Elizabeth C. Knight, and Thomas Carlyle—and, of course, Ernst Theodor Amadeus himself.
Sunday 12:00 Noon. Panel
From Powys to Poughkeepsie: The Countries of Children's Fantasy
John Clute, Debra Doyle, Greer Gilman, Theodora Goss (L), Sonya Taaffe
"Surely everyone cherishes a secret, private world from the days of childhood. Mine was Camelot, and Arthur's Round Table, Malory, and the Mabinogion." —Lloyd Alexander, recalling the origins of the Prydain Chronicles. On the strength of novels like The Grey King, The Owl Service, The Whispering Mountain, and The Crystal Cave, the same might be said of Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Joan Aiken, and Mary Stewart—an entire generation of British and American children's fantasists for whom Wales was the home of the mythic and the numinous, the old country of Arthurian legend and pre-Christian tradition. What comparable locus for the fantastic exists nowadays? Is it each writer's home country? Does the Matter of Britain still echo through children's and YA literature? Or, as the field of fantasy has broadened, is there no longer a single land which everyone agrees lies at the heart of the magic?
May I hope to see some of you there?
Friday 12:00 Noon. Event
A Dramatic Reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts I & II
Inanna Arthen, Ron Drummond, Greer Gilman, Adam Golaski, Caitlín R. Kiernan, K. A. Laity, John Langan, Shira Lipkin, Faye Ringel, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Eric M. Van
(I will be reading Titania. Opposite
greygirlbeast's Oberon. Wish me luck.)Friday 2:00 PM. Event
A Dramatic Reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts IV & V
Inanna Arthen, Ron Drummond, Scott Edelman, Jim Freund, Greer Gilman, Adam Golaski, Walter H. Hunt, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Mary Robinette Kowal, K. A. Laity, John Langan, Faye Ringel, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Eric M. Van
Friday 4:00 PM. Group Reading
Mythic Delirium / Goblin Fruit Group Reading (60 min.)
Mike Allen and Amal El-Mohtar (hosts), Erik Amundsen, Kate Baker, C.S.E. Cooney, Gemma Files, Francesca Forrest, Theodora Goss, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Shira Lipkin, Caitlyn Paxson, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente
Joint reading from Mythic Delirium, the biannual magazine of speculative poetry edited by Allen, and Goblin Fruit, the quarterly online zine of fantastical poetry edited by El-Mohtar and Jessica Wick, including samples from the recent "Mythic Fruit" and "Goblin Delirium" issues produced by a recent "editor swap."
Friday 5:00 PM. Panel
On the Beach on the Beach
Suzy McKee Charnas, John Crowley, Amanda Downum, Peter Straub, Sonya Taaffe (L)
We tend to think of comfort reading as not so far off from the beach book—by definition reassuring, non-taxing, a return to the familiar at a stressful moment in time. But what if your first encounter with a favorite book was less milk and cookies than five-alarm chili? Come and compare notes with fellow readers on the books you love dearly that initially puzzled, unsettled, or took you by surprise (and may still). Statistically, you can't be the only person in the field who opens up Pale Fire on a bad day.
Saturday 11:30 AM. Reading (30 min.)
Sonya Taaffe reads something that will fit in a half-hour time slot.
Saturday 1:00 PM. Talk / Discussion (60 min.)
Different and Equal Together: SF Satire in District 9
Andrea Hairston with discussion by Suzy McKee Charnas
Lurking behind every image, character, and plot twist in the biting sf satire (and Hugo nominee for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form) District 9 is the troubling question of the colonial and postcolonial age: how can we be different together? Satiric grappling with colonialism is a typical sf endeavor. District 9 troubles the notion that we inhabitants of the 21st century have zoomed through our terrible history and arrived at a postcolonial, post-apartheid present where, magically, we are all equal, and difference is no longer exploited or oppressed. In this militantly ironic film, characters are, regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity, equally guilty of horrific disdain for any "alien" life. Successful irony requires familiarity with the subject of the satire. If the satire in District 9 does not bounce off of an audience's knowledge of, e.g., Nigerian culture and history, how do we read Nigerian savagery in the film? Is District 9 caught in the colonial impulse it is trying to disrupt?
Saturday 3:00 PM. Event
The Rhysling Award Poetry Slan
Mike Allen MC), Erik Amundsen, Kate Baker, Leah Bobet, C.S.E. Cooney, Amal El-Mohtar, Gemma Files, Francesca Forrest, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Shira Lipkin, Caitlyn Paxson, Darrell Schweitzer, Sonya Taaffe, Cecilia Tan, Catherynne M. Valente
(A "poetry slan," to be confused with "poetry slam," is a poetry reading by sf folks, of course.) Climaxed by the presentation of this year's Rhysling Awards.
Saturday 7:00 PM. Panel
Comparing Translations Redux
Greer Gilman, Walter H. Hunt, Paul Park, Sonya Taaffe (L), Eric M. Van (L), Amy West
Back for the third time by popular demand! This time, our panelists will compare four translations of a passage from E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1814 masterwork of the fantastic, "The Golden Pot," while attendees follow along line-by-line. Two years there was a clear favorite among translations of Zamyatin, while in 2006 it was agreed that the best translation of Borges was a composite of all available versions. But what criteria, exactly, form our sense of "best"? Accessibility? Poetry? The original sentence structure? And if what we prize as readers of the target language is a flavor of the original, would a native German speaker concur with our ideas of "German"? Come explore these questions and more through the words of Ritchie Robertson, Joseph M. Hayse, Leonard J. Kent and Elizabeth C. Knight, and Thomas Carlyle—and, of course, Ernst Theodor Amadeus himself.
Sunday 12:00 Noon. Panel
From Powys to Poughkeepsie: The Countries of Children's Fantasy
John Clute, Debra Doyle, Greer Gilman, Theodora Goss (L), Sonya Taaffe
"Surely everyone cherishes a secret, private world from the days of childhood. Mine was Camelot, and Arthur's Round Table, Malory, and the Mabinogion." —Lloyd Alexander, recalling the origins of the Prydain Chronicles. On the strength of novels like The Grey King, The Owl Service, The Whispering Mountain, and The Crystal Cave, the same might be said of Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Joan Aiken, and Mary Stewart—an entire generation of British and American children's fantasists for whom Wales was the home of the mythic and the numinous, the old country of Arthurian legend and pre-Christian tradition. What comparable locus for the fantastic exists nowadays? Is it each writer's home country? Does the Matter of Britain still echo through children's and YA literature? Or, as the field of fantasy has broadened, is there no longer a single land which everyone agrees lies at the heart of the magic?
May I hope to see some of you there?
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