firecat

Hey, anyone want to help work up any of these ideas as Wiscon panel descriptions? They're listed with the name(s) of the people I talked to about them.

• there are several entirely different WisCons going on simultaneously (jesse the k)
• "The Structural Underpinnings of Social Isolation" (jesse the k)
• "a panel that isn't about picking people up for sex, but meeting folks one has an emotional/intellectual spark with" (possibly for dating in the future. ACE-friendly) (sophy)
• "carbon dating fairy": which books have aged well, how and why? Not so much about which books the various $suck and $fail fairies have visited, but which ones feel modern even after decades (Dune?), which ones are classics for every age (Tolkien?), and which ones remain attached to the era they were written but stand as great examples of that era's writing and concerns (PKDick?) * Is SF more likely to age badly than fantasy? * How much of a role does writing style play in the feeling of aging well or poorly? Some other books/authors: _War for the Oaks_, Piserchia, _God Stalk_, McCaffrey, Le Guin (the OH)

Crossposts: http://firecat.livejournal.com/853754.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

jiawen

Is the "several different WisCons" one more about trying to bridge gaps, or appreciating the different threads in the fabric?

From:

firecat

My tendency would be to want to mention both in the description, but not nail it down to either one. E.g. "Some attendees believe there are several entirely different WisCons going on simultaneously. What do they look like? Which ones do you celebrate, belong to, feel confused by, or feel uncomfortable with? Should we try to bridge the gaps between them (if so, how?) or just appreciate the different threads in the fabric?" [I really like that phrasing]

What do you think?

From:

jesse_the_k

I really like that phrasing as well!

I mentioned it because it took me a long time to realize that parallel events occurred, and some of the ones I didn't know of were things I cared about. Also there's a plethora of signifiers. While this could be particularly helpful to first timers, I think old hands would be surprised.

The way I've thought about it.

Work: finding an agent, a publisher, a first/second/n₁ reader, where to send slush, who wants a slush reader, dealers' room

Play: how do all these people already know each other? from the internet; from their youth; from the con circuit; from a coven; from RP ....

Dress codes: are all these blue haired people friends? why are there so many octopus tee shirts? is it OK to ask people about their clothes? that person isn't wearing clothes, it's underwear: what does that mean?

Speech codes: must you speak English? what happens when you use dialectical variations of English? is there a con language?

From:

jiawen

Well, it's a mixed metaphor, but maybe that's appropriate here.

I like all of what y'all have mentioned, and would want to be on that panel.

I also think it has some overlap with the Social Isolation panel of last year, and discussions of how it feels like not only are there multiple cons going on in the same space, but it feels like some of them are definitely given more prestige (and maybe privilege) than others.

From:

firecat

Yeah it definitely has some overlap with the Social Isolation panel.

jesse_the_k proposed that panel and I was one of the panelists. And yes, differing prestige and privilege is part of what's going on here.

Tx for noticing the mixed metaphor; I hope we can work a comment about that into the panel description (see my reply to jesse_the_k).

From:

firecat

I really like that! Here's my attempt to work it into a panel description. (I wish I could use all the awesome examples you give - octopus tee shirts, HEE! - but I think that might make the description too long.)

"Some attendees believe there are several entirely different WisCons going on simultaneously. Some folks attend for work, some for play. Different dress codes and speech codes are in use. What do these different Wiscons look like? How do people discover or recognize others in their particular Wiscons? Which ones do you celebrate, belong to, feel curious about, feel confused by, or feel uncomfortable with? Should we try to bridge the gaps between them (if so, how?) or just appreciate the different threads in the fabric? (Yes, we are gleefully mixing our metaphors.)"

From:

jesse_the_k

Yay! You've managed to weave the threads into the bridge abutments!

Nowadays word count is not that limiting: the database hold a brief description as well as the full one. the latter is used for the web and the smartphone apps, so we can be wordy.

now it needs a snappy title: maybe one of these could spark something?
-traversing (traveling) the WisCon Multiverses
- Space travel in one zip code
-WisCon as an n-dimensional space