My Readercon Schedule

I'll be at Readercon next week, and on four panels (which is just the right amount -- programming at Readercon is more intense than at any other con I've been to, especially since it's one where panelists really do have to do some advance planning). Here are my panels, along with their awesome descriptions (note that I actually challenge the description of "Ghostbusting Lovecraft" a bit, and noted this in my response when I expressed interest in it.) The letters represent room names (possibly confusing, since both my Friday panels are in "F"). It's a wonderfully small con -- if you attend, you won't have a problem finding these panels, and if you're someone I know online, you should say, "hi." I'm an introvert, but do like chatting with folks at cons (and when I don't, I'm adept at making that clear).

Friday July 11
11:00 AM F Mystery and Speculative Crossovers. Meriah Crawford, Chris Gerwel, Greer Gilman, Nicholas Kaufmann, Adam Lipkin. There are many books that draw from both the speculative fiction and mystery toolboxes, in both macro ways (China Miéville's The City & the City and Peter F. Hamilton's Great North Road are catalyzed by hard-boiled murder investigations) and micro ways (urban fantasy was initially defined by its relationship to noir, now often more evident in tone than in plot). Where is this crossover most satisfying? How do magic and advanced technology open up new avenues of investigation or methods of befuddling the detectives? How have trends, tropes, and developments in each genre influenced crossover works?

7:00 PM F The Plausible Normal in Future Societies. Chesya Burke, John Chu, Sarah Langan, Adam Lipkin, Scott Lynch.
According to author Charles Stross, "If you're not doing [far-future extrapolation] to the cultural normals as well as the setting and technology, you're doing it wrong." Many far-future SF stories are set in a universe with an interstellar polity, advanced transportation technologies, and familiar political structures. The planetary civilizations they tend to portray, however, are middle-class white suburbias that barely exist now. Where are the far-future stories that explore novel and radical gender politics, religious frameworks, ideologies, fashions, and cultural attitudes? What are some tools authors can use to get out of their here-and-now mindsets and imagine a truly transformed future?


Sunday July 13
10:00 AM CO Ghostbusting Lovecraft. Mike Allen, Gemma Files, John Langan, Adam Lipkin, James Morrow. In Max Gladstone's blog post "Ghostbusting Lovecraft," he writes: "Ghostbusters is obviously taking the piss out of horror in general. But while the busters’ typical enemies are ghosts of the Poltergeist persuasion, the Big Bad of the movie, a formless alien god from Before Time summoned by a mad cultist–cum–art deco architect, is basically Lovecraftian." Unlike typical Lovecraftian protagonists, however, the Ghostbusters prevail over the eldritch horrors by exploiting the power structures and emotional connections that exist between people. Is the Ghostbusters story arc an alternative to the standard horror tropes, one that replaces fear with humor, defiance, and camaraderie? How else does it subvert our expectations of the conflict between humans and horrors?


1:00 PM G Transformative Works and the Law and You. Max Gladstone, Toni Kelner, Adam Lipkin, Sarah Smith. Let's discuss the state of transformative works today. Copyright law and case law in this area is changing rapidly, as is the way big publishing treats transformative works. Remix culture is the cutting edge of 21st-century creativity, and we are all postmodernists. Is the law finally catching up with that, or lagging far behind? Will the fate of copyright and transformative works ultimately be decided by the whims of corporations and powerful literary estates?

My Readercon Schedule

I'll be at Readercon next week, and on four panels (which is just the right amount -- programming at Readercon is more intense than at any other con I've been to, especially since it's one where panelists really do have to do some advance planning). Here are my panels, along with their awesome descriptions (note that I actually challenge the description of "Ghostbusting Lovecraft" a bit, and noted this in my response when I expressed interest in it.) The letters represent room names (possibly confusing, since both my Friday panels are in "F"). It's a wonderfully small con -- if you attend, you won't have a problem finding these panels, and if you're someone I know online, you should say, "hi." I'm an introvert, but do like chatting with folks at cons (and when I don't, I'm adept at making that clear).

Friday July 11
11:00 AM F Mystery and Speculative Crossovers. Meriah Crawford, Chris Gerwel, Greer Gilman, Nicholas Kaufmann, Adam Lipkin. There are many books that draw from both the speculative fiction and mystery toolboxes, in both macro ways (China Miéville's The City & the City and Peter F. Hamilton's Great North Road are catalyzed by hard-boiled murder investigations) and micro ways (urban fantasy was initially defined by its relationship to noir, now often more evident in tone than in plot). Where is this crossover most satisfying? How do magic and advanced technology open up new avenues of investigation or methods of befuddling the detectives? How have trends, tropes, and developments in each genre influenced crossover works?

7:00 PM F The Plausible Normal in Future Societies. Chesya Burke, John Chu, Sarah Langan, Adam Lipkin, Scott Lynch.
According to author Charles Stross, "If you're not doing [far-future extrapolation] to the cultural normals as well as the setting and technology, you're doing it wrong." Many far-future SF stories are set in a universe with an interstellar polity, advanced transportation technologies, and familiar political structures. The planetary civilizations they tend to portray, however, are middle-class white suburbias that barely exist now. Where are the far-future stories that explore novel and radical gender politics, religious frameworks, ideologies, fashions, and cultural attitudes? What are some tools authors can use to get out of their here-and-now mindsets and imagine a truly transformed future?


Sunday July 13
10:00 AM CO Ghostbusting Lovecraft. Mike Allen, Gemma Files, John Langan, Adam Lipkin, James Morrow. In Max Gladstone's blog post "Ghostbusting Lovecraft," he writes: "Ghostbusters is obviously taking the piss out of horror in general. But while the busters’ typical enemies are ghosts of the Poltergeist persuasion, the Big Bad of the movie, a formless alien god from Before Time summoned by a mad cultist–cum–art deco architect, is basically Lovecraftian." Unlike typical Lovecraftian protagonists, however, the Ghostbusters prevail over the eldritch horrors by exploiting the power structures and emotional connections that exist between people. Is the Ghostbusters story arc an alternative to the standard horror tropes, one that replaces fear with humor, defiance, and camaraderie? How else does it subvert our expectations of the conflict between humans and horrors?


1:00 PM G Transformative Works and the Law and You. Max Gladstone, Toni Kelner, Adam Lipkin, Sarah Smith. Let's discuss the state of transformative works today. Copyright law and case law in this area is changing rapidly, as is the way big publishing treats transformative works. Remix culture is the cutting edge of 21st-century creativity, and we are all postmodernists. Is the law finally catching up with that, or lagging far behind? Will the fate of copyright and transformative works ultimately be decided by the whims of corporations and powerful literary estates?