Lunasadh for geeks

My Readercon schedule, gods willing:



Friday July 15



1:00 PM    ME    The Readercon New Fiction Book Club: Among Others. Suzy Charnas, Gwynne Garfinkle, Greer Gilman, Madeleine Robins (leader), Gary K. Wolfe.



Jo Walton's stand-alone contemporary novel Among Others scatters several familiar fantasy concepts--the epistolary diary narrative, the British boarding school, countryside faeries, an evil mother, the magic of twins, and even a hint of Arthuriana--over a battered industrial landscape amid passionate paeans to classic science fiction and fannish community. The resulting tale has an almost slipstreamish unease; though set in the 1970s, it could only have been written in the early 21st century. We will discuss the ways Walton combines and contrasts these very disparate elements as well as the concepts of audience implied by the novel's thorough anchoring in a particular time and place.



5:00 PM    VT    Reading. Greer Gilman. Gilman reads from a work in progress.



7:00 PM    ME    The Quest and the Rest. Greer Gilman, M.C.A. Hogarth, Kelly Link, Robert V.S. Redick, Madeleine Robins (leader).



In a 1951 letter, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that Samwise and Rosie's romance, though understated, "is absolutely essential to... the relation of ordinary life (breathing, eating, working, begetting) and quests, sacrifice, causes." Works as varied as Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan series, Stephen King's Lisey's Story, and Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate novels overtly interweave speculative elements with themes such as love, marriage, parenthood, and holding down a steady job. Does the mundanity of responsible adulthood interfere with escapism, or are readers thrilled to have protagonists they can identify with? How do different authors and narratives handle the tension between the intimate and ordinary and the vast and mysterious?



Saturday July 16

2:00 PM    F    Location as Character. Greer Gilman, Glenn Grant, Elizabeth Hand (leader), Michael Aondo-verr Kombol, Yves Meynard, Madeleine Robins.



We can read certain authors whose mere invocation of a previously described location adds a level of depth to the story, such as Lovecraft's Innsmouth or Elizabeth Hand's Kamensic. The idea of fictional locations as characters in their own right is one that has been explored many times before, so let's talk about the techniques and reasons for doing so. The reasons for an author to re-use a locale seem fairly obvious, but are there reasons not to do so? What are some of the challenges in describing a reality-based location powerfully enough to transport a reader? Panelists will discuss their favorite scene-setting techniques, as well as locations in other writer's works that have felt real and solid for them.


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Sunday July 17



1:00 PM    F    I Know What I Like: The Artistic Tastes of Characters. Greer Gilman, Geary Gravel, Resa Nelson, Margaret Ronald, Sonya Taaffe (leader).



Exploring the artistic tastes of characters can lead to interesting and subtle exposition of personality--or be a ham-fisted shortcut that reinforces stereotypes. Talking about art also expands the setting of a story, as all art is an expression of culture. What are some of the pitfalls of approaching a character from this angle and how do you avoid them?



2:00 PM    ME    The Languages of the Fantastic. Greer Gilman.



Works of fantasy can make unusual narrative demands. Their writers may need to call forth spirits from the vasty deep; or convincingly record a dialogue of dragons; or invent the tongues of angels and of orcs. Greer Gilman looks at the many strategies of style by which illusion is created and upheld: the grammar of the elsewhere and the otherwise. Her essay on "The Languages of the Fantastic" will appear in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature (edited by Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James).



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