Diversicon report

[naomikritzer]

I arrived on Saturday just in time for my first panel, on Cost. We talked about stories that handle cost well (I mentioned Scott Lynch's novel again) and that don't really, and whether there are any sorts of stories that don't require cost (I suggested that trickster stories could get away without cost some of the time, since avoiding the cost can sometimes be the whole point of the scam). For some reason, the Flying Spaghetti Monster came up as we were waiting for an audience to arrive, and I had the opportunity to share the noodly goodness with still more people in fandom. I'm thinking that maybe for some future con I will suggest a programming item on the FSM; for one thing, the people you'll find at cons would be fabulous potential contributors to the FSM's think tank ("a think tank devoted to proving our a priori assumption that He exists using whatever specious arguments and circular logic available to do so.")

(I also tried to explain the Eight I'd Rather You Didn'ts, rather unsuccessfully. They're available on Wikipedia if you're curious. My favorite is #5: "I'd Really Rather You Didn't Challenge The Bigoted, Misogynist, Hateful Ideas Of Others On An Empty Stomach. Eat, Then Go After The Bastard.")

My second panel was on Post-Human Economics, and as predicted, I really didn't have much to add. The next panel, "Whom Will We Hate," was really pretty interesting. Someone brought up the Geek Hierarchy Flowchart, and one of the audience members, a woman named Rachel Kronick, explained and then defended Furries. It was kind of fascinating, because I swear I could see her thinking, should I mention here that I'm not a Furry? Does that make me a hypocrite? Oh, what the hell, I'm mentioning it. She commented that when she's defended Furries in the past, someone nearly always says, "if I have to live in a world where I'm not allowed to hate Furries, I don't even want to LIVE." She was interesting, articulate, and funny, and I was pleased to see that she was on both my Sunday panels.

On Sunday, Lyda Morehouse, Rachel and I were on two back-to-back panels in the same room. According to the schedule, we were supposed to talk about GLBT characters in SF starting at 10 a.m., and then at 11 we were supposed to change the subject and talk about religion in SF for another hour. Rachel was late to the first panel; Lyda invited Ellen Kuhfeld up to join the panel since she watches Anime and could comment on it. Neither Lyda nor I watches a whole lot of TV; we both watch Battlestar Galactica (and are up to about the same point, midway through season 2) and we both groused about the distinct lack of GLBT characters in the show. Lyda read (or at least started) every single paperback original SF novel that was published last year (she was a judge for the Philip K. Dick award) and apparently the GLBT characters were few and far between there, as well. Someone commented that if G, L, and B characters were rare, the T characters were completely invisible. Rachel had some DVDs of trans-themed movies, some of which looked rather fascinating; she passed those around, and I wrote down titles, which I don't have handy.

I also got to participate in a "mass autographing," which was actually very small: me, Phillys Ann Karr, Bryan Thao Worra, and Kelly Link. A couple of people stopped by and had us sign programs, and I got to sign two copies of my books. I hadn't met Bryan before: he's funny and pleasant and a fine person to be stuck sitting next to for an hour.

Finally, I got to meet muneraven and tambyrd, which was really fun.

Comments

[racebannon42.livejournal.com]

I don't think so much that people HATE furries so much as they love to ridicule them.

[naomikritzer]

Yeah, I think you're right. One of the panelists, Steve, raised the distinction between hatred and prejudice a few times, but that discussion never really got going. I don't think anyone hates Furries the way they hate, say, Fred Phelps. They're a safe target for mockery, though.

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

I met Bryan last year and we've become friends. He is a fantastic person. Very warm, funny, interesting and helpful. I'm so glad he got a chance to be guest.

I enjoyed your GLBT panel too, but I never know if I want a panel on what it's like to write with GLBT characters in mind, or what the state of GLBT is today. I'm getting to the point though where my personal writing tip is "it depends completely on your story" and "look at works by other people doing the same thing."I wrote down Rachel's titles too. I hope they are easy to find.

[jiawen]

The movies: Soldier's Girl, Different for Girls, Southern Comfort, Transgeneration and Yellow Hair 2. I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix or whoever also had these movies.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Ye Ghods & little kittens, but I wished I could remember when it was that I chaired a panel at Minicon about Tableg characters from that year's SF books, t.v. & the like. My particular beef was with Alpha Flight where one of the male characters was starting to look like he was a fairy, but instead the "big reveal" was that (get ready for it) an elf.

To quote Anna Russell, "I'm not making this up, you know."

_____
*"TBLG" = Transgender/Transexual, Bi, Lesbian & Gay. I figure (among many things) it's time to let the trannies come first.

Diversicon

[muneraven.livejournal.com]

I liked Diversicon. I didn't talk to ANYONE at CONvergence because it was my first Con and also I was constantly observing my 12 year old son to see how he was handling being "on his own" part of the time. But at DIversicon I didn't have to worry about him so much and I actually spoke to three or four people. Maybe five. Which is a lot, for me.

As for furries: You know, the truth is that most anyone with a shred of imagination has some kinks that are well outside what most people consider "normal". And each of us can see the appeal of some of those kinks, while others make us go "hmmm" and still others make us go "eeewww." I don't get the furry thing, and I won't say it doesn't make me chuckle. But at least I'm aware that people into the furry subculture might feel the same way about things that ring my chimes. It seems odd to me to want to hate any group that isn't actively hurting anyone.

Anyway, this blog reading and commenting thing is a DELIGHTFUL way to avoid finishing my research so I can write chapter 5. Gotta go, darn it. But it was sure nice to meet you, too, Naomi.

[jiawen]

Thank you for the compliments, by the way.

When you get a chance, if you haven't already, please look over the programming ideas for Minicon 42 and let me know any other ideas you have, and any panels you'd like to be on.