Minicon

[pegkerr]

I had a great time. I really do enjoy conventions. I have friends who grouse that they don't have a good time at conventions, because it gets them off their writing schedule, and they get sick from the food, and their sleeping schedule gets out of whack. Well, sure, we're all delicate creatures as we're growing older, and we can't party on down the way we used to do. But I usually manage to enjoy myself thoroughly at conventions, and I did at this one.

I attended some programing, including the two panels I was on, one on magical realism, and one on the question "Can writing be taught?" I also attended the panel on literary criticism and the one on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings considered as a tragedy.

papersky had requested that I join her on the magical realism panel. I felt a little nervous before this one, and did a quick web search and found this page, which I speed read before going on the panel to make me a little more confident about holding my own during the discussion. I found that what I read (along with papersky's assertion during the panel, that The Wild Swans was magical realism, an opinion which startled me quite a bit) made me want to do much more reading in this area, starting perhaps with the bibliography here.

The comment that stuck with me the most from the "Can writing be taught" panel was a remark of Robert Sawyer's that Joe Haldeman had challenged himself to memorize a poem a day for a year in an attempt to improve his writing. "And it worked," Rob Sawyer said. "You can really see it in his writing now, that he has the eye of a poet." Hmm, fascinating idea.

At the literary criticism panel, I was also intrigued by Phil Kaveny's remark that Shippey's J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century was the most interesting/exciting/inspiring lit crit he'd read all year (I bought my own copy to read today).

I went to John M. Ford's reading and laughed myself sick at his piece "The Fellowship of the Woosters," crossing the Lord of the Rings with the P.G. Wodehouse books. Bertie Wooster takes the place of Aragorn in the tale. Mayhem ensues.

There was a LiveJournal meetup party, hosted by daedala and jbru. Delicious desserts were served. I met many LiveJournal users all weekend long, too many, probably, to list them all.

Lots of fine conversations. I remember a fun one, quite late at night in the con suite, when I was explaining the magic system I've worked out (so far) on the new novel to 90_percent_sure, as B. (minnehaha) kept exclaiming, "Can you believe this? She's making it all up!"

One other mention of note: Spent a good deal of time talking with Laurie Winter, who is finally able to reveal the happy news that she has won the McKnight Foundation grant for children's literature. $25,000! Congratulations, Laurie!

I emerged from the convention with scads of notes, a sleep deficit, a date to get together with Pat Wrede next Friday, a determination to read more poetry, an impressive list of books to add to my "must read" list, a pile of books purchased in the huckster's room to get me started, a fresh set of questions to consider while tackling my novel, and the memory of a lot of fine conversations.

Back to regular schedule (exercise, writing, etc.) tomorrow morning.

Cheers,
Peg

Comments

Fellowship of the Woosters

[kalopsia.livejournal.com]

I'm laughing myself sick just imagining Bertie Wooster as Aragorn! Is there any way to read this or find it online or buy it?? I would love to see what he wrote on that.

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

I'd really like read that too. If Bertie=Aragorn, though, who was Jeeves?

Fellowship of the Woosters

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Jeeves was just Jeeves, his inimitable self. As self-possessed as ever.

See my further reply to kalopsia here.

Re: Fellowship of the Woosters

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Alas, it is not yet sold, and he's not sure what would be a good market for it, so you can't read it yet. If he does sell it, I'll let you know.

But if you would like to see what Mike ("John M. Ford" is Mike to his friends) can do with parody, you can buy How Much for Just the Planet?, which is surely one of the best Star Trek novels ever written. It's Star Trek told as a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. Neil Gaiman and pameladean both have walk on parts in it, by the way.

Re: Fellowship of the Woosters

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

I love that book; when I culled my Star Trek collection years ago, that's one of the few that I kept. The idea of Scotty singing Gilbert & Sullivan.... *snerk*

Re: Fellowship of the Woosters

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Aaagh! Want want want!

Re: Fellowship of the Woosters

[kalopsia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reccommendation. I can admit to being a trekie so that sounds like something I'd enjoy.

but, it is a crime for him to keep the Fellowship of the Woosters away from the public. He is combining my two favorite things! Is there an address I can write to or anyway I can let him know that there is at least one person who would greatly enjoy reading that peice?

[daedala.livejournal.com]

I have a bunch of the Latin American magic realism classics, if you'd like to borrow them. Let me know if you want a list.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Oooh. Titles, please?

laurie

[sdn.livejournal.com]

i am sosososososo happy for laurie. she is the best.

[resqdog51.livejournal.com]

Which con did you go to?

Res

Oh, sorry

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Minicon 38

Re: Oh, sorry

[resqdog51.livejournal.com]

Nah nah, don't be sorry.... Now that you say it, I find that I missed it. My fault.

*chuckle* Con-fusion, err, confusion, or was it Con confusion or something... (wow, I had no idea how many ways that could be expressed...) anyway, I spent the whole weekend at a con (NorWesCon) myself, and to hear of someone else returning from a con (especially that had similar panels in at least one area!), it, err... Confused me! *grin*

I hope you had as much fun at YOUR con as I did at mine!


Res

[papersky.livejournal.com]

It's the fairytale magic and the lack of a magic "system". :-)

A thought I had about where the magic is in the new thing -- Jack's list, that you posted, had "learning magic" as one of his important things, and it felt slightly odd to me when I read it, and it feels odder after what you were saying about where the magic is in that panel. Would he say that like that? Might there be better words to express that? I just thought this might be an area where thinking more about how Jack percieves all of that might be a good thing.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I agree; this is one of the important things that Peg has to figure out. How does the magic system work? Is it something that one learns, or is it intuitive? Does it have rules, or is it freeform? Can it be understood or explained? How is is experienced? How is it recognized? How does it permeate society?

I don't mean to use "system" in a formal scientific sense, but more in a "this is how the world works" sense.

B

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Well, that depends on what she's doing. One of the things we were talking about on that panel is that in magical realism magic serves the story, the character needs, rather than being a part of the world you could describe as a system. In some ways, The Wild Swans has magic that works in a very unsystematic way, and it definitely works as a novel. There isn't anything wrong with writing magic realism -- some of the things we mentioned on the panel were Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan and Bisson's The Pick-Up Artist. You don't have to use magic in a logical way, you can use it in an emotionally-logical way, or a dream-logical way. I often feel that magic in fantasy novels doesn't really feel very magical because it's too worked out and taken for granted by the author.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Yes, and what you describe above is an example of a system, and a fine one at that. As I tried to say, I am using the word "system" as a way to put a box around magic, and not as a way to limit what might be inside that box. Using magic in an emotional, non-logical, non-consistent way is certainly an option, and many books do that.

B