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leahbobetFinal Readercon schedules are out! This is mine!
Friday 11:00 AM, Salon B: Panel
SF As The Literature Of Things. Leah Bobet (L), John Clute, Paul Di Filippo, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Diane Weinstein
It's commonly agreed that stories set in the future can "really" be about the future or the present. But in novels like William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and Spook Country, and Bruce Sterling's Zeitgeist and Zenith Angle, we are for the first time seeing stories set in the present which seem to be about the future. These fictions seem to argue that the future will be built bottom-up rather than top-down; that progress does not derive from the implementation of ideas but rather from the accumulation of quotidian technological change. Character in these works is not so much a matter of nature or nurture, but a product of our interaction with things, things produced as fast as we can (because we can) and without any deep consideration for their consequences. Is this "SF as a Literature of Things" ultimately just an interesting sub-genre, or might (or should) the field itself be morphing in its direction? There are more and more slipstream stories that start with an architectural setting or an object or some arcane text; do these reflect the same movement?
Friday 2:00 PM, VT: Group Reading
Mythic Delirium / Goblin Fruit Group Reading (60 min.) Mike Allen, Amal-El Mohtar, and Jessica Paige Wick (co-hosts) with Leah Bobet, M. M. Buckner, Greer Gilman, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente, Joselle Vanderhooft et al
Joint reading from _Mythic Delirium_, the biannual magazine of speculative poetry edited by Allen (which just published its tenth anniversary issue), and _Goblin Fruit_, the quarterly online zine of fantastical poetry edited by El-Mohtar and Wick (whose Summer 2009 issue is due out now).
Friday 5:00 PM, VT: Reading (30 min.) from her unpublished novel Above.
Friday 6:00 PM, RI: Workshop (60 min.)
Speculative Poetry Workshop. Mike Allen with participation by Leah Bobet, Michael A. Burstein, Vylar Kaftan, Ernest Lilley
What is speculative poetry? How do you write it, why would you want to, and which editors will buy it? Come prepared to write on the fly.
Saturday 10:00 AM, Salon A: Panel
Upbeat and Downbeat in YA Fiction. Paolo Bacigalupi, Leah Bobet, Ellen Klages, Gayle Surrette (M), Tui Sutherland
Dark and downbeat endings have become fashionable in YA fiction, even to the point where they have been questioned as a fad gone too far. The trend raises a host of questions about the psychology of young readers that need to be asked and answered. Is the tone and resolution of a work of YA fiction actually more important than in adult fiction, e.g., because the readers are still at the age where their worldview is being shaped? Do young readers have a different tolerance for or reaction to downbeat endings than adults? Do they need to be forcibly exposed to the cruel realities of the world, shielded from them, or gently inoculated?
Saturday 2:00 PM, VT: Group Reading
Clockwork Phoenix 2 Group Reading (60 min.) Mike Allen (host) with Saladin Ahmed, Leah Bobet, Mary Robinette Kowal, Barbara Krasnoff, Catherynne M. Valente
Readings from the second volume of the annual non-theme anthology (subtitled More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness) edited by Allen and just published by Norilana Books.
Saturday 3:00 PM, Salon A: Event
The Rhysling Award Poetry Slan. Mike Allen (MC) with Michael Bishop, Leah Bobet, Lila Garrott, Greer Gilman, Ernest Lilley, Darrell Schweitzer, Sonya Taaffe, 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.
Things to take away from this?
1) Readercon is making me earn my Green Room breakfasts this year. Slacking will not be tolerated.
2) They actually gave me a reading for Above. (!!!)
I admit I did not expect this to happen.
So if you are a person going to Readercon and want to hear some of the book I've been nattering, carping, pondering, ripping up, putting back together, and working on for the last *cough* long, well. Friday at 5pm. I'll probably read the beginning. Unless there's something else people really want to hear.
Friday 11:00 AM, Salon B: Panel
SF As The Literature Of Things. Leah Bobet (L), John Clute, Paul Di Filippo, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Diane Weinstein
It's commonly agreed that stories set in the future can "really" be about the future or the present. But in novels like William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and Spook Country, and Bruce Sterling's Zeitgeist and Zenith Angle, we are for the first time seeing stories set in the present which seem to be about the future. These fictions seem to argue that the future will be built bottom-up rather than top-down; that progress does not derive from the implementation of ideas but rather from the accumulation of quotidian technological change. Character in these works is not so much a matter of nature or nurture, but a product of our interaction with things, things produced as fast as we can (because we can) and without any deep consideration for their consequences. Is this "SF as a Literature of Things" ultimately just an interesting sub-genre, or might (or should) the field itself be morphing in its direction? There are more and more slipstream stories that start with an architectural setting or an object or some arcane text; do these reflect the same movement?
Friday 2:00 PM, VT: Group Reading
Mythic Delirium / Goblin Fruit Group Reading (60 min.) Mike Allen, Amal-El Mohtar, and Jessica Paige Wick (co-hosts) with Leah Bobet, M. M. Buckner, Greer Gilman, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente, Joselle Vanderhooft et al
Joint reading from _Mythic Delirium_, the biannual magazine of speculative poetry edited by Allen (which just published its tenth anniversary issue), and _Goblin Fruit_, the quarterly online zine of fantastical poetry edited by El-Mohtar and Wick (whose Summer 2009 issue is due out now).
Friday 5:00 PM, VT: Reading (30 min.) from her unpublished novel Above.
Friday 6:00 PM, RI: Workshop (60 min.)
Speculative Poetry Workshop. Mike Allen with participation by Leah Bobet, Michael A. Burstein, Vylar Kaftan, Ernest Lilley
What is speculative poetry? How do you write it, why would you want to, and which editors will buy it? Come prepared to write on the fly.
Saturday 10:00 AM, Salon A: Panel
Upbeat and Downbeat in YA Fiction. Paolo Bacigalupi, Leah Bobet, Ellen Klages, Gayle Surrette (M), Tui Sutherland
Dark and downbeat endings have become fashionable in YA fiction, even to the point where they have been questioned as a fad gone too far. The trend raises a host of questions about the psychology of young readers that need to be asked and answered. Is the tone and resolution of a work of YA fiction actually more important than in adult fiction, e.g., because the readers are still at the age where their worldview is being shaped? Do young readers have a different tolerance for or reaction to downbeat endings than adults? Do they need to be forcibly exposed to the cruel realities of the world, shielded from them, or gently inoculated?
Saturday 2:00 PM, VT: Group Reading
Clockwork Phoenix 2 Group Reading (60 min.) Mike Allen (host) with Saladin Ahmed, Leah Bobet, Mary Robinette Kowal, Barbara Krasnoff, Catherynne M. Valente
Readings from the second volume of the annual non-theme anthology (subtitled More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness) edited by Allen and just published by Norilana Books.
Saturday 3:00 PM, Salon A: Event
The Rhysling Award Poetry Slan. Mike Allen (MC) with Michael Bishop, Leah Bobet, Lila Garrott, Greer Gilman, Ernest Lilley, Darrell Schweitzer, Sonya Taaffe, 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.
Things to take away from this?
1) Readercon is making me earn my Green Room breakfasts this year. Slacking will not be tolerated.
2) They actually gave me a reading for Above. (!!!)
I admit I did not expect this to happen.
So if you are a person going to Readercon and want to hear some of the book I've been nattering, carping, pondering, ripping up, putting back together, and working on for the last *cough* long, well. Friday at 5pm. I'll probably read the beginning. Unless there's something else people really want to hear.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-06 01:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-06 01:35 am (UTC)(What if nobody comes? What if people do come? I don't have any other panelists to hide behind. What if they don't like it. EEEEE-- *no carrier*)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-06 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-06 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-06 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-06 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-06 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-06 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-06 03:57 am (UTC)ReaderCon
Date: 2009-07-07 12:33 am (UTC)I'm a happier lad now that I know that I can/will attend.
Miles for us.
D
Re: ReaderCon
Date: 2009-07-07 01:05 am (UTC)