My Worldcon schedule

[la_marquise]

I have my final schedule for Worldcon and I'm very happy with it. I have a set of really interesting panels, with some of my favourite people. I have a reading (argh, what to read?)! I have a Literary Beer! This is going to be so much fun.

Here are the details.

Literary Beer
Thursday 17:00 - 18:00, The Bar (ExCeL)

Kari Sperring


The Deeper the Roots, the Stronger the Tree
Friday 10:00 - 11:00, Capital Suite 9 (ExCeL)

The roots of modern science fiction and fantasy are often associated with authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, T.H. White, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley. But plenty of 19th- and early 20th-century authors with minimal or no fantastical or sfnal content have inspired and continue to inspire modern genre writing, including but not limited to Alexandre Dumas, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, and Georgette Heyer. What is the on-going appeal of such authors, their styles, and their worlds? What is it about them that lends itself to genrefication?
Abigail Sutherland (M), Zen Cho, Mary Robinette Kowal, Kari Sperring, Delia Sherman


"Your 'realistic' fantasy is a washed out colourless emptiness compared to the Rabelaisian reality." Discuss.
Saturday 13:30 - 15:00, Capital Suite 6 (ExCeL)

'Realism' has become a buzzword for contemporary genre fantasy, but most medievalesque world-building still barely scratches the surface of the reality. One in three marriages in 14th-century Cairo ended in divorce; English towns were brimming with migrants, including people of colour; women fought on the battlefields of the Crusades; and cities across the world were awash with lurid pageantry that would make modern audiences blush. The panel will discuss aspects of medieval and early-modern life that were more complex than our fiction imagines, and ways of making our invented worlds as diverse and exciting as our history.
Kate Elliott (M), Nic Clarke, Edward James, Kari Sperring, Jenny Blackford


Reading: Kari Sperring
Saturday 16:00 - 16:30, London Suite 1 (ExCeL)


Seeing the Future, Knowing the Past
Sunday 12:00 - 13:30, Capital Suite 7+12 (ExCeL)

Fantasy's use of prophecy - knowable futures - often parallels the way it treats the past, as something both knowable and stable: details of history known from a thousand years back, kingly bloodlines in direct descent for several hundreds of years, etc. In reality, George I of England was 58th in line for the throne and there is a Jacobean claimant still out there somewhere. No one really knows where France originated. History is messy and mutable. Why is fantasy so keen on the known?
William B. Hafford (M), Sarah Ash, Liz Bourke, Karen Miller, Kari Sperring


There Are No New Stories, But...
Sunday 19:00 - 20:00, Capital Suite 16 (ExCeL)

What are some of the characters and narratives we've seen enough of? Is it time for the assassin with the heart of gold to take a break? Should the farmer keep farming and stop exchanging his rake for a broadsword? Could the squabbling will-they-won't-they couple just get a room already? More generally, why are tropes used, and what are their structural, stylistic and political implications?

Kari Sperring (M), John Hornor Jacobs, Laura Lam, Pierre Pevel, Jon Wallace


Robin Hobb: When Assassins Didn't Need to Be Hooded
Monday 13:30 - 15:00, Capital Suite 8 (ExCeL)

Robin Hobb has influenced a generation of epic fantasists with her unique voice, and a willingness to avoid easy solutions even if that sometimes means letting bad things happen to good characters. While Hobb's work is dark at times, her famous assassin, FitzChivalry, is almost a kitten compared to the hooded cold blooded killers today's audience seems to crave. Has the fantasy market fundamentally changed in tone and content, or just diversified? How did the field get from there to here? And, finally, where is it headed?

Tim Kershaw (M), Kate Elliott, Robin Hobb, Patrick Rothfuss, Kari Sperring

Comments

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

Robin Hobb: When Assassins Didn't Need to Be Hooded

Wow, that's a lineup.

...and I will be gone by then. Damn.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the first one after the Literary Beer, I'll be at that one. The second one sounds excellent, too.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

You're a part of some panels that sound really awesome!

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

I won't be at LONCON3 - no money as usual, but seeing the titles of the two panels you are on makes me even more positive about the proposed Writing Historical fiction conference that Farah is involved with. I think there's a lot of crossover between 'historical' world building and stories set in 'real' historical contact. Could be a very interesting meeting.

"Your 'realistic' fantasy is a washed out colourless emptiness compared to the Rabelaisian reality." and Seeing the Future, Knowing the Past

I'm sure you'll be great.

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

My schedule:-


[b]Cosplay and Costume at Worldcon[/b]

Friday 10:00 - 11:00, London Suite 2 (ExCeL)

[b]Just Three Cornettos[/b]

Saturday 16:30 - 18:00, Capital Suite 2 (ExCeL)

The Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright "Cornetto trilogy" concluded last year with The World's End, following Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. What is the trilogy's place in British SF? The panel will discuss why the films' endings are so unconventional, what the trilogy had to say about topics such as society and consumerism, masculinity and maturity, and the British landscape ... And they'll decide which fence gag is best.

[b]Cosplay on the cheap[/b]

Sunday 15:00 - 16:00, Fanac Tent (ExCeL)

Costumes don't have to be expensive to be effective (or fun)! A Workshop/Demo on creating costumes inexpensively from thrift store and recycled/upcycled materials

[b]TV & Film Music & Composers[/b]

Monday 13:30 - 15:00, London Suite 2 (ExCeL)

TV and Film music scores have provided many memorable themes, and are a vital part of the experience. Panellists discuss the themes and 'big names'.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! Those look interesting.

[mikaela-l.livejournal.com]

They sounds great! I still wish that I had the money to go to Loncon3. But I will simply have to lure you to Sweden. :)

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

I hope that you had a nice birthday! Apologies for missing it, there was a cat emergency.