The better world version

If only we could get to the farce version while skipping the tragedy.....

Suppose that someone is hiding Osama bin Laden so he can be displayed just before the election. This sort of thing is an invitation to screwball comedy since there are probably three or four groups that would like to have bin Laden and probably half a dozen doubles available.

The better world version

If only we could get to the farce version while skipping the tragedy.....

Suppose that someone is hiding Osama bin Laden so he can be displayed just before the election. This sort of thing is an invitation to screwball comedy since there are probably three or four groups that would like to have bin Laden and probably half a dozen doubles available.

A few notes from Worldcon

Two good ideas: The First Night midway on Thursday--I went to the juggling workshop, and while I didn't end up juggling three balls in twenty minutes (as promised), I did find out something about how much precision one can put into tossing a ball from one hand to the other, and one these days I might end up juggling three balls.

The Arisia party had a convention in one night--name badges, dealer's table, other stuff I don't remember. I wasn't there, but it sounded exceedingly neat, and I hope I have a chance to see such a thing at some future convention.

I spent most of my day time in the dealers' room, which made me realize that there were almost no panels in the evening. I vote for at least a few evening panels if that's tolerable for the panelists.

I might post about the panels I missed in the hopes of getting a little post-con discussion.

I did get to a Tolkien panel--I wish I remembered more of it, but it was good to hear a lot of people say that they don't hate Tom Bombadil. I don't either. Actually, this fits with my previous comments about silly endearments--a lot of people find even small amounts of silliness in fiction hard to take, and I wonder why.

Imho, part of the point of Tom Bombadil is that dignity doesn't matter. You can have dignity if you want (it's part of how Gondor works), but it doesn't make you either good or powerful.

My experiment with little buttons went reasonably well--they sold ok, and will presumably do better as I get a better idea of what slogans to put on them and how to display them.

If what I heard at my table was a fair sample, at least 80% of attendees were pro-Kerry/anti-Bush.

It was good meeting elisem and many thanks to papersky for staying up very late talking with me.

A few notes from Worldcon

Two good ideas: The First Night midway on Thursday--I went to the juggling workshop, and while I didn't end up juggling three balls in twenty minutes (as promised), I did find out something about how much precision one can put into tossing a ball from one hand to the other, and one these days I might end up juggling three balls.

The Arisia party had a convention in one night--name badges, dealer's table, other stuff I don't remember. I wasn't there, but it sounded exceedingly neat, and I hope I have a chance to see such a thing at some future convention.

I spent most of my day time in the dealers' room, which made me realize that there were almost no panels in the evening. I vote for at least a few evening panels if that's tolerable for the panelists.

I might post about the panels I missed in the hopes of getting a little post-con discussion.

I did get to a Tolkien panel--I wish I remembered more of it, but it was good to hear a lot of people say that they don't hate Tom Bombadil. I don't either. Actually, this fits with my previous comments about silly endearments--a lot of people find even small amounts of silliness in fiction hard to take, and I wonder why.

Imho, part of the point of Tom Bombadil is that dignity doesn't matter. You can have dignity if you want (it's part of how Gondor works), but it doesn't make you either good or powerful.

My experiment with little buttons went reasonably well--they sold ok, and will presumably do better as I get a better idea of what slogans to put on them and how to display them.

If what I heard at my table was a fair sample, at least 80% of attendees were pro-Kerry/anti-Bush.

It was good meeting elisem and many thanks to papersky for staying up very late talking with me.

Fiction of Manners

I hate fiction of manners, but that's not going to stop me from writing about it in some effort to see if I can figure out why. I hope that people who like fiction of manners will tell me whether I've got an accurate impression of the genre. (I admit that I might be as wrong as someone who hates sf trying to talk about sf, but I also feel it's occasionally necessary to look like a fool in public in order to learn things.)

Imho, fiction of manners is almost entirely about emotion and status, and a lot of my problem with it (aside from a probably neurotic aversion to paying attention to status maneuverings) is that I'm left feeling very claustrophobic when I read it. People don't seem to notice any material object except for its status possibilities. They don't talk about ideas. They don't make things. They hardly get out of doors.

Their status maneuverings are for very high stakes in terms of their personal happiness (frex, in a classic CoM, the cost of a bad marriage might be serious poverty), but the physical cost of losing is kept off-stage. (The emotional cost, say being the poor relative-companion of someone obnoxious, may well be on-stage.)

In a discussion I can't find easily papersky said that _Tooth and Claw_ was too savage to be fantasy of manners. I think it's not just savagery--people in fiction of manners aren't very embodied, whether for pleasure or pain.

Fiction of Manners

I hate fiction of manners, but that's not going to stop me from writing about it in some effort to see if I can figure out why. I hope that people who like fiction of manners will tell me whether I've got an accurate impression of the genre. (I admit that I might be as wrong as someone who hates sf trying to talk about sf, but I also feel it's occasionally necessary to look like a fool in public in order to learn things.)

Imho, fiction of manners is almost entirely about emotion and status, and a lot of my problem with it (aside from a probably neurotic aversion to paying attention to status maneuverings) is that I'm left feeling very claustrophobic when I read it. People don't seem to notice any material object except for its status possibilities. They don't talk about ideas. They don't make things. They hardly get out of doors.

Their status maneuverings are for very high stakes in terms of their personal happiness (frex, in a classic CoM, the cost of a bad marriage might be serious poverty), but the physical cost of losing is kept off-stage. (The emotional cost, say being the poor relative-companion of someone obnoxious, may well be on-stage.)

In a discussion I can't find easily papersky said that _Tooth and Claw_ was too savage to be fantasy of manners. I think it's not just savagery--people in fiction of manners aren't very embodied, whether for pleasure or pain.