Fantasycon

[la_marquise]

Fantasycon was interesting. It reminded me very much of Novacon -- very much a con for a subset of people, with its own well-worn rituals and behaviours. Interesting to watch, but I felt a little loose-endish. In programme and focus, it seems to have changed very little from 1979: horror ruled the day. Good things were Jasper fforde's GoH item, which was very poorly attended. a chance to catch up with various people, two truly superb Indian restaurants within two minutes walk and good beer most of the time. Bad things -- too much horror, a slightly grimy hotel and the tendency for the beer to run out in the evenings. Odd things: many people I almost recognised, but did not know -- fan-types, perhaps. Realising on the way home that we had spent our time exclusively with writers and editors. I now know why the pros all stick together. It's not snobbery, it's that they don't know anyone else. And something exciting happened which I'm not allowed to talk about yet.
I don't know if I'll go again: it was okay, but not gripping and the programme didn't excite me. I was on two items, one on Myth, which went very well, and one on New Writers which was less successful. Both had more audience than Mr fforde, which is just plain wrong.

In other news, here's a question: why is there so much written and performed about the Tudors? Even as I type, Radio 4 is reading yet another book about Elizabeth I. It has to be the most over-mined period in British history and (IMHO) one of the dullest. What on earth is the appeal? It baffles me.

Comments

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

The Tudors?

I suspect it's because that's when England came of age, and became a European power.

(Or maybe we prefer the Welsh, rather than the Scots or the Germans. For whatever value of Welsh the Tudors actually were. We certainly didn't get on terribly well with the Scots - Stuart kings were overthrown twice within the century.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It may be down to the Reformation, and the dominance of the puritan tradition in history down to the 19thc., but I would hope nowadays we could look beyond that!

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Could be that, too. There's probably no one reason.