Obligatory Post-Wiscon, Take One

[sovay]

I'm back from Wiscon. I slept last night in a room containing only me and the books were on shelves. It was a bit of a revelation.

I had a marvelous time. Figures met in this mythical landscape included tim_pratt, rambleflower, jlundberg, marrael, ellen_kushner, yhlee, truepenny, matociquala, pythia_akrypta, valancy, sosostris2012, buymeaclue, drakenfly, Christopher Rowe, Gwenda Bond, Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, and others whose names I am sure I have forgotten: I will do penance before the shrines of heroes in atonement, if somebody lets me know.

It was cool. There will be stories when I have the time.

I fall over now.

Comments

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

And it was wonderful meeting you.

By the way, you have a truly gorgeous profile. *g* Just thought you should know.

[sovay]

Heh. I haven't the proper configuration of mirrors to check for myself, so I'll take you at your word. Thank you!

[kraada.livejournal.com]

. . . I want to see this shrine of heroes . . .

[sovay]

The hero-cults of literature are generally regional and thus offset from worship of the main pantheon as practiced everywhere the same, but one can make, after years of archaeological study, certain basic remarks about shrine architecture.

The columns are marble books, stacked; each page individually cut, but time is blurring their corners and creases into vague rectangular shapes, and some of the names and titles chiseled into the spines are no longer legible. Suppliants' ritual tends to involve the chanting of these titles, however, so one must assume that more permanent—copied and recopied—lists are kept elsewhere.

On the pediments of the shrines are usually represented such type-scenes as the First Sale, Arming before the Con, Signing the Contract, and sometimes the more elaborate Hero Shows Off Award To Family, Friends, And Everything That Isn't Nailed Down. Cult statues, however, are idiosyncratic; easily recognizable even if one is not familiar with all the attributes of a particular hero. See the shrine of the hero-twins Sheldon and Tiptree, who share immortality between them; the twins are generally represented as one Janus-faced being, facing east and west, although evidence from all the literary and oral cycles characterizes them with two naturally separate lives.

It is a popular piece of misinformation that books are sacrificed at the shrines of heroes. (Think about it for a minute.) Only at the shrine of Bradbury Flammifer are pages burned, and these generally written with the prayers of suppliants to this particular aspect of the hero; the smoke carries the words. Rather, heroes prefer the sacrifice of time and energy: the forecourts and porticos of their shrines are full of the tidal hum of voices, reading aloud, reading out the words that heroes once committed to the page from the aether above: language earthed, made buoyant again. To make sacrifice of ten minutes for a brief story or a handful of poems is the usual suppliant's offering. A full book's worth of time is a more dedicated sacrifice. To read out the whole works of a hero confers the highest level of attention.

If one is planning to visit the shrine of Joyce Polytropos with a serious request in mind, don't make any afternoon plans.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

::leaves a votive fountain pen::

Nine

[justbeast.livejournal.com]

Ummm... wow. :)

Sonya? You rule.

[sovay]

Thank you. : )

[grailquestion.livejournal.com]

If one is planning to visit the shrine of Joyce Polytropos with a serious request in mind, don't make any afternoon plans.

*giggle*snort*

Polytropos, I like it.

[sovay]

I try!

[jlundberg.livejournal.com]

It was fantastic meeting you too, Sonya. Hopefully it won't be another year before we can hang out again.

[sovay]

Definitely. What are your plans for cons this year?

[jlundberg.livejournal.com]

I'll be a guest at Trinoc-con, a local NC convention. If our finances can handle it, I'd love to go to World Fantasy again, especially since it'll be in Madison this year, and there will be people there (like Jeff VanderMeer) who weren't at WisCon, but we'll see. I think that's it. WisCon was our big convention this year.

[drakenfly.livejournal.com]

Was good to meet you. I hope that you will be coming to WisCon 30.

[sovay]

Me too! This was awesome.