The Mighty Mighty Boskone

[truepenny]

(I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with that pun, but wotthehell.)

My Boskone schedule:

Saturday, February 18, 10:00 am Is Fantasy Necessary?
Bruce Coville
Debra Doyle
Ellen Kushner ellen_kushner
Sarah Monette
Mary A. Turzillo (M)

Edward Abbey said "I see more poetry in a chunk of quartzite than in a make-believe wood nymph, more beauty in the revelations of a verifiable intellectual construction than in whole misty empires of obsolete mythology." If this is so, why do so many of flock to read fantasy? Discuss (without bloodshed, if possible.)

Saturday, February 18, 11:00 am Space and Sensibility: Channeling Jane Austen?
James D. Macdonald (M)
Beth Meacham
Sarah Monette
Teresa Nielsen Hayden tnh
Delia Sherman

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any beloved (and why?) classic will be made into a movie (on at least four separate occasions: discuss?), and then re-novelized....(how?) Additionally, it can little be wondered that the volumes of a certain Lady have engaged the general good opinion of a later and more celestially inclined generation. We may, indeed, readily list estimable Authors who have attempted to catch something of her style. Yet might not any attempt to draw a portrait of a mannered society impart a sympathetic coincidence of feeling? Is this preference but the fashion of a moment, or a phenomenon of more respectable permanence. La!

Saturday, February 18, 1:00 pm Genius Loci: How Setting Influences and Structures the Story
Elizabeth Bear matociquala
Elaine Isaak (M)
Ellen Kushner ellen_kushner
Sarah Monette
Joshua B. Palmatier jpsorrow

How do the vast arc of the Ringworld, the snug hills of the Shire, the treeless plazas of Trantor shape their stories' characters and events? Does local color bewitch or bore the reader? (Does it even matter? -- and how?) Are real places easier to evoke than imaginary ones? What SF/F/H settings can't you forget?

Saturday, February 18, 3:00 pm Autographing

Sunday, February 19, 10:00 am What I Do When I Should Be Writing
Beth Bernobich beth_bernobich
Darlene Marshall (M)
Sarah Monette
Steven Popkes
Wen Spencer wen_spencer

G.B. Shaw said of the English encyclopediast Samuel Johnson, "I have not wasted my time trifling with literary fools in tavens as Johnson did when he should have been shaking England with the thunder of his spirit." Done any tavern-trifling yourself lately? How abut TV watching? Web surfing? Cat vacuuming? How else do you distract yourself from getting any work done....and how do you get back to the writing?

Sunday, February 19, 1:00 pm 1/2 hr Reading
[probably the beginning of The Virtu, although I could possibly be persuaded otherwise if there are strong dissenting opinions.]

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Ah! "Is Fantasy Necessary" explains why there's a "Is Science Fiction Necessary" panel immediately after it (it doesn't have a description, in the e-mail Chad got, anyway).

I didn't know that science fiction was channeling Austen lately. I must be reading the wrong novels.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

:goes off to look for errant precis:

[orzelc.livejournal.com]

:goes off to look for errant precis:

Oh, God, I hope you find it soon...
I'm supposed to be moderating that panel, and while I'm fine with that, I'd really like something more to work with...

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Try Lois McMaster-Bujold's "A Civil Campaign". She thanks Jane right in the author aknowledgements. :)

[kate_nepveu]

Well, yes, but that was several years ago and I didn't know that it represented any kind of trend such that there would be panel discussions about it now.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I am really, really impressed by the sound/signal ratio at the Boston-area cons thus far, and this'un promises to be no exception.

Eeee! Boskone!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

That all looks very cool.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Wish I could sit in on some of these panels.

"Obsolete mythology" is an impossibility, I think. The two terms don't go together.

[heathwitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. I saw a similar post in matociquala's journal, too, and now I've seen your post about it I wish more than ever I could be going along. have fun, and when you get back, do tell us how it went :)

off topic

[thefrozennorth.livejournal.com]

I felt the need to share.

Follow the link and look for a familar name:

http://reflectionsedge.com/index.html

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Sonds like a busy panel schedule, too--good luck!
I think it's extremely helpful to have topics worked out like this in advance, becuase I've been to some where changes were made day-of, and *nobody* knew what we were supposed to talk about in order to gather ammo--I mean supporting evidence.
Some of us do a better job than others of riffing off the top of our brains entertainingly and *factually*, while doing our standup improv acts.