Reader my Con

I am on the programming!  This is where I must be:

Thursday July 14 8:00 PM    F    Mastering the Puppets. Erik Amundsen, Gwendolyn Clare, John Crowley, Mary Robinette Kowal (leader), Barry N. Malzberg. Catherynne M. Valente uses the phrase "touching the puppets" as critical shorthand for protagonists--and, by extension, stories--interacting with fantastical elements rather than merely coexisting with them. Copious puppet-touching creates an inherently speculative story (e.g. City of Saints and Madmen), but plenty of stories with speculative settings succeed despite leaving the puppets relatively untouched (e.g. Star Wars, in which the droids could be people and the lightsabers could be swords without changing the story at all). What makes those stories work for speculative fiction audiences? What are the advantages and disadvantages to touching the puppets, and what drives an author to go one way or the other? Friday July 15 6:00 PM    G    There's a Robot in My Bestiary!. Erik Amundsen, David Boop, Jeffrey A. Carver (leader), Michael Swanwick, Sonya Taaffe. Elves and dwarves are out; golems and garuda are in. The inhabitants of early 21st-century fantasy are distinctly different from their 20th- and 19th-century predecessors. Conscious automatons, cyborgs and chimerae, and interstellar travelers in fantasy settings suggest a quiet wave of emigration from SFlandia. What makes these characters so resonant for today's readers? What are their unique contributions to fantasy narratives, and what struggles do they face in their new homes?

(Also Interstitial Arts Exchange, and if time_shark   needs me, the Poetry Slan).

I didn't get the "Setting as Character" one, which is a tiny disappointment, because I feel most confident and qualified to speak on that, but the ones I got are cool.  I need to get researching to get my thoughts, so I can put them in order.  Otherwise, you can find me tagging along with kids cooler than myself.