One of the main things I am going to miss about not being able to go to conventions in the USA is sitting around listening to smart, well-informed people talk about books. Two of those people are Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, and I’m delighted to see that Jonathan has just put up a podcast of the two of them chatting. It is an hour long and full of good stuff. Well worth listening to if you have any interest in books and reviewing.
For those of you who do not want to listen to the whole thing, the highlights are probably the bits where they talk about the most interesting books that are coming out this year. Here are the books they think we should be reading:
- Kraken, China Miéville [buy isbn=”9780333989500″]
- The Dervish House, Ian McDonald [buy isbn=”9780575080522″]
- Zero History, William Gibson [buy isbn=”9780399156823″]
- The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi [buy isbn=”9780575088870″]
And you know, I think they are dead right.
I’m sorry that there are not enough smart, well-informed people who like to talk about books in the UK, that we could have a convention like that here.
(I decided that I wasn’t going to the US any more in 2004, and I have been occasionally really wistful about the Wiscons I will never be to as a result: OTOH, if anyone ever decided to run a British feminist sf con, I would be there like cheese on baked beans.)
The very best way to Be There, as the Herbivore lactate of your choice upon legumes is to – here I will disclose the Secret of The Ages – organize it Yourself with the aid of your friends, fellow fans and associates.
It’s all very simple .. though not very easy. Mind you it never was all that easy and it took me years to break myself of the habit of being involved in convention organization.
Literary Cons aren’t a new idea here in the UK and frankly to my mind the division between ‘literary ‘ and,say, ‘Media ‘ conventions is pretty artificial and mostly serves to prop up the fragile egos of those who are horrified by the thought that they might somehow be involved in fostering Trek cons.
Consider that the Mexicons of fabulous memory were once born in a drunken conversation as a daft idea and then swiftly became ever so fashionable for awhile. Note this entry from the ancient and creaking ink upon velum pages of Ansible ..
“CONS
Mexicon 2 has been having trouble finding suitable and affordable hotels – hence its postponement to a tentative Feb 1986. “We couldn’t even afford one day at the last place we tried,” groaned Greg Pickersgill, adding that hotel managers had readily confessed that (a) if they didn’t get Mexicon they’d have an empty hotel and lose money, but (b) they still wouldn’t reduce their charges in the slightest. “Weird,” commented Ealing’s guru. Official press releases promised soon; meanwhile, until ’85, registration is £6 to Mexicon .. ”
http://news.ansible.co.uk/a40.html
A little further on from that item is that which gives one cause to think about the wisdom of being involved in Convention organization …
” Yorcon III surges onward (5-8 April 85) with no more than the usual appalling rumours of events at committee meetings. Surely there can be no truth in the story that chairman-in-all-but-name Graham Jones remarked that the only good thing about the con would be the fan room; that Alan Ferguson queried this remark, coming as it did from the person organizing the main programme; that GJ wittily riposted by seizing AF and starting to drag him from the room with cried of “You’ve been getting at me all this meeting, we’re going to settle this outside”; that the remainder of the committee gave a remarkable Still Life performance for some seconds until Arnold Akien stood to remonstrate with GJ; that GJ, pausing only for brief abuse (You’re just a joke in fandom, Akien!”) burst out the room to sulk; that several committee members then resigned, one (Pete Lyon) for the second time, but were coaxed back in the interests of Total Committee Unity and Cosmic Harmony; that… but enough of these evident smears which have reached me. Yorcon is no doubt strong and vital…. ”
Ah, well, that con was successful by it’s own lights although, err , politically, a bit difficult. Or as one of the then locals in Leeds did say ‘ we had hoped that he might really piss you off Arnold and that you would then break all of his arms ‘ Never the less You can DO it Yonmei … if you want to.
Lots of advice is available from those who are involved in present day Con Organization .. ask Cheryl. Just start small as a proposal .. a ‘ chapter and outline ‘ of what you would like to do … ” a British feminist sf con ” and where you would like to do it. Nothing commits you to actually doing anything … it’s just a conversation.
It all starts as an idea and then gradually takes shape into reality, or not, as the case might be.
The thing about the US is that it has around 10 times as many people in it as the UK. Also it has vastly more people doing academic study of SF, because their universities are much more supportive of that sort of thing. Being stuck here I can, of course, talk with the likes of John Clute, Farah Mendlesohn, Roz Kaveney and so on, but there’s lots of people I won’t get to talk to because they don’t come here, and nothing like ICFA on a regular basis.
We could have a UK version of WisCon. We could also have an award. I think it is a but shameful that the US, Japan and Australia all have gender-related SF awards but we don’t. But the only way to make that happen is if people are prepared to organize it. I can’t do it by myself.
. . . cheese on baked beans?
Maybe we just need more online cons. I don’t travel by plane much for both ecological and financial reasons, and after watching the competitions at Breakpoint (a demoparty in Germany) this year, I find myself wanting to watch or participate in more conventions online. Admittedly I keep forgetting to do so when there is the opportunity, but given that my next jaunt to Europe is likely to be in August of 2011 (the last being in 2008, and before that 2004), and after that there will be another, possibly lengthier hiatus, it would be nifty to organize “shadow cons” that could connect on the intarrwebs. Says she who is taking a hiatus from con organizing, le sigh.