Where I’ll be this weekend
Arisia! Here are the events I’m scheduled for:
Reading: Chu, Longyear, Shawl
Fri 5:30 PM 01:15
I’ll figure out what I’m reading between now and Friday. Probably something unpublished and still in-progress. In any case, the real reason to show up is for Barry Longyear and Nisi Shawl.
The Twelfth Doctor: Everybody Panic/Rejoice
Sat 2:30 PM 01:15
So we’ve now all seen Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. Is he everything we hoped for? He’s the first Doctor since Eccleston who has been prominent coming into the role; does that have an impact on how we view his character? Is the new Doctor too different from Smith and Tennant? How do folks feel about Stephen Moffat’s handling of the transition? We’ll talk about all our Twelfth Doctor thoughts in this panel.
Dialect in SF/F
Sat 7:00 PM 01:15
Classic literature and some SF have used dialect successfully, but much of our literature is written in received pronunciation. SFF use of dialect has been criticized as appropriative when done by non-native speakers, or exclusionary when stories in authentic dialect are painted as “too hard to read”. Junot Diaz wrote: “Motherfuckers will read a book that’s one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they think we’re taking over.” What modern authors are making progress here?
Fear Is the Mind-Killer: Dune at Fifty
Sun 7:00 PM 01:15
In 1965, Frank Herbert’s Dune, which went on to win the 1966 Hugo award, was published. Arriving in the wake of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring a few years earlier, Dune was perhaps the first SF novel to explore ecology on a grand scale. It has spawned several sequels, been adapted into multiple filmed adaptations, and inspired countless works of music in several genres. Come celebrate the 50th anniversary of this seminal work.
Writing and Racial Identity
Mon 1:00 PM 01:15
What does your race have to do with what you write? Depending on your race, are certain topics forbidden to you? Obligatory? None of the above? If your race matters, how do you know what it is? By what people see when they look at you, or by what you know of your genetic background? By your cultural upbringing? By what you write?