Baycon interim
May. 29th, 2004 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacAs I can't be at Wiscon (the usual state of things, alas), our local Baycon provides something to do over the weekend, especially if one is on programming, which reduces one's financial outlay and gives a positive reason to go to programming.
I had three panels today. One on "Non-Western Fantasy" (which one attendee actually thought meant "fantasy without gunslingers or cowboys") had a couple writers of less than average-sized reputations but more than average-sized egos, so I lay low as I didn't want to irritate them too much with my propensity to recommend good books. But I did get a word in for Always Coming Home, plus my favorite obscure Tibetan fantasy, Grania Davis's The Rainbow Annals, and, just to be fair, Bridge of Birds.
A panel on "Finding Information Online" had four librarians of varying background plus Nancy Blachman, who runs a website www.googleguide.com, a tutorial that restates Google's search options in friendly language. Like many such guides, it's focused narrowly, leaving plenty of room for the rest of us to talk about how to decide if Google is the best web tool for your needs, how to choose search terms, and how to evaluate results. There were some gratifyingly tough audience questions.
"He's Dead, Jim: Grieving for Our Lost Shows" was entirely lively and unserious, thanks particularly to the tone set by the moderator, Chris Garcia. Chris began by asking each of us to name our favorite SF tv show that was cancelled too soon, and I found myself naming Quark, which I've rarely given a thought to since its brief run in 1978, but enjoyed a lot at the time. Everyone else seemed happy to hear it named. Elsewhen on the panel, I borrowed the line![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
supergee used in my comments a while back, that Elvis's death was a great career move, to suggest that it was better for a show to die too early with questions unanswered, like The Prisoner (originally slated for at least two seasons) or Firefly, than to run on too long, like Buffy and Angel. This put me at gentle odds with Jonathan Fesmire, who thought Angel was cut off in its prime, and others who considered seven seasons of Buffy just right. (I'd have preferred the last two seasons to be half-length, or better yet for their highlights to have been folded into season 5 and gone out with a bang.)
Other programming today: Randy Smith and Sarah Goodman read Dr. Seuss books to a small but appreciative audience, honoring a writer fully fit to be ranked with this year's other notable literary centenarians, Graham Greene and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Thought was given to sending copies of Bartholomew and the Oobleck and Yertle the Turtle to a certain address in Washington, D.C., but it was decided that the recipient wouldn't get the point.
Kathryn Daugherty led a panel on "How to Judge a Book by Page 119." Each panelist read a few paragraphs from an unidentified book, and Kathryn skilfully led the audience in a careful discussion of writing craft as practiced on a small scale - description, touches of characterization, relation of dialogue to exposition, etc. - before identifying the book and going on to the next. Most of the books were SF, but a couple were fantasy. One panelist raved over her offering, a crackling excerpt from one of Robin Hobb's Assassin novels; as Hobb's name was new to her, I made sure to tell her afterwards about a book called Wizard of the Pigeons that Hobb wrote under another name. And Kathryn read an excerpt from a science fantasy that I found so awkward and badly written (including the said-bookism "he scoffed") that I said, when called upon, that after reading that I'd put the book down and slowly walk away. I did not change my tune on learning that it was Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter. I did start reading that book once, and I did soon put it down and slowly walk away.
Not much to do at Baycon most evenings, so I came home to write this and listen to Haydn divertimenti and a mock-Schubert symphony.
I had three panels today. One on "Non-Western Fantasy" (which one attendee actually thought meant "fantasy without gunslingers or cowboys") had a couple writers of less than average-sized reputations but more than average-sized egos, so I lay low as I didn't want to irritate them too much with my propensity to recommend good books. But I did get a word in for Always Coming Home, plus my favorite obscure Tibetan fantasy, Grania Davis's The Rainbow Annals, and, just to be fair, Bridge of Birds.
A panel on "Finding Information Online" had four librarians of varying background plus Nancy Blachman, who runs a website www.googleguide.com, a tutorial that restates Google's search options in friendly language. Like many such guides, it's focused narrowly, leaving plenty of room for the rest of us to talk about how to decide if Google is the best web tool for your needs, how to choose search terms, and how to evaluate results. There were some gratifyingly tough audience questions.
"He's Dead, Jim: Grieving for Our Lost Shows" was entirely lively and unserious, thanks particularly to the tone set by the moderator, Chris Garcia. Chris began by asking each of us to name our favorite SF tv show that was cancelled too soon, and I found myself naming Quark, which I've rarely given a thought to since its brief run in 1978, but enjoyed a lot at the time. Everyone else seemed happy to hear it named. Elsewhen on the panel, I borrowed the line
supergee used in my comments a while back, that Elvis's death was a great career move, to suggest that it was better for a show to die too early with questions unanswered, like The Prisoner (originally slated for at least two seasons) or Firefly, than to run on too long, like Buffy and Angel. This put me at gentle odds with Jonathan Fesmire, who thought Angel was cut off in its prime, and others who considered seven seasons of Buffy just right. (I'd have preferred the last two seasons to be half-length, or better yet for their highlights to have been folded into season 5 and gone out with a bang.)Other programming today: Randy Smith and Sarah Goodman read Dr. Seuss books to a small but appreciative audience, honoring a writer fully fit to be ranked with this year's other notable literary centenarians, Graham Greene and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Thought was given to sending copies of Bartholomew and the Oobleck and Yertle the Turtle to a certain address in Washington, D.C., but it was decided that the recipient wouldn't get the point.
Kathryn Daugherty led a panel on "How to Judge a Book by Page 119." Each panelist read a few paragraphs from an unidentified book, and Kathryn skilfully led the audience in a careful discussion of writing craft as practiced on a small scale - description, touches of characterization, relation of dialogue to exposition, etc. - before identifying the book and going on to the next. Most of the books were SF, but a couple were fantasy. One panelist raved over her offering, a crackling excerpt from one of Robin Hobb's Assassin novels; as Hobb's name was new to her, I made sure to tell her afterwards about a book called Wizard of the Pigeons that Hobb wrote under another name. And Kathryn read an excerpt from a science fantasy that I found so awkward and badly written (including the said-bookism "he scoffed") that I said, when called upon, that after reading that I'd put the book down and slowly walk away. I did not change my tune on learning that it was Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter. I did start reading that book once, and I did soon put it down and slowly walk away.
Not much to do at Baycon most evenings, so I came home to write this and listen to Haydn divertimenti and a mock-Schubert symphony.
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Date: 2004-05-30 10:14 am (UTC)Wizard of the Pigeons is one of my favorite books. I was delighted to find, in the UK the other year, Lindholm's earlier books (including WOTP) reprinted and shelved under Hobb in a London bookshop.
I think that reading books aloud is almost a lost pastime for adults, which is a sad thing. Fortunately, some cons insist on offering it again and again. I was convinced, myself, by some of the old Minneapolis crowd years ago, and it made our drive home so much more entertaining.