Writercon: panels
Aug. 8th, 2006 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avreliaBetter late than never, and here is the last ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
writercon post that I was planning to make.
I mostly stuck to the Myth track panels, occasionally going for others, and sometimes trying to do some panel-hopping, in order to get at least a taste of two panels at the same time- it didn’t do much good, as I felt I missed something from both panels.
Most of the things I do remember are my own thoughts and questions.
The first panel was the one about natural and chosen families. It was nice, albeit probably a little bit slow – due to it being one of the first panels and everyone is still warming up. The panellists agreed on the importance of the chosen families and compared the chosen families in the discussed shows and fanfics to the chosen family of the fandom.
My note: Nobody actually makes a list of people with whom one wants to form such a family – can you imagine Angel making such a list after moving from Sunnydale to L.A.? Can you imagine Angel then planning a family with Cordelia, Wes and Gunn? Speaking of chosen families, it is interesting to note the dynamics of creating one – out of whoever is around. In this sense you choose your family and your family chooses you.
The next panel was The world without shrimp, about the importance of setting (though I do wish occasionally we could discuss the importance of shrimp as well!). Anyway, here I was one of the panellists, together with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nwhepcat (the moderator), ascian3, mosca and Susan Sizemore. We had a lively discussion about the difference between stories told that set in one place (Sunnydale, Neptune, L.A., N.Y and the stories that set on a spaceship that go from place to place (or other travelling stories). We touched the influence setting has on the stories and the characters, and I talked about the influence characters have on setting, and we discussed how different cities tell different kinds of stories.
My point: Sunnydale is a Room of Requirement of sorts. It is what it needs to be, it has what it needs at the moment and it reflects Buffy's state of mind - if not in actual geography then in the feel of the place. We start with the LA girl coming in the town with only one Starbucks (that we never see) and one place to go - The Bronze. Then we learn that it has 46 churches, docks, UCLA campus, etc. In season 6, on the contrary, the world beyond Sunnydale doesn't seem to exist and Sunnydale itself shrinks to cemeteries, Casa Summers, DMP, and Spike crypt. Just like the grave, really - and we end up with the glimpse of the world as a beautiful garden. in season 7 we start with the shining sun, shining new high school and glimpses of the world beyond Sunnydale. then the whole world comes to Buffy's place, and Buffy's house becomes the whole world. Shrinkage ensues. Then our heroes go deep (strange in the conventional tactics' sense, yet appropriate if we see Sunnydale as reflection of their inner self) and the story ends with an open road.
One question or a remark from the audience I remember – I cannot recall the name of the lady who asked it though. The remark was – it’s financial concerns that rule the choice of setting, not the demands of a story. And the claustrophobic sense of season 6 of BtVS, that is, as I said, was consistent with Buffy’s feelings owes not to Buffy, but to move from WB to UPN. It made sense, of course, but it was like reminding us that we were talking about TV shows, and vampires and vampires slayers, and interspace travels don’t exist. Which is – Duh! We know that, we really do. Why did we waste so much time and money on the Writecon and fandom again? We are aware that the flow of the story often depends on the outside factors – such as actors’ availability, money, network’s decision to close the show or editor’s opinion in case of a book. All this doesn’t change our ability to discuss a story as it is – or that it still makes sense for us to discuss the story at all. Mosca, I believe, expressed this sentiment all panellists shared.
The next panel I was a panellist on was about archetypes in the stories. Other panellists werethedeadlyhook (moderator), ascian3, denny_dc and Susan Sizemore. The most remarkable for me at the moment was the amazingly responsive and active audience and seized the discussion and took it where it liked it – to the comics and various types of heroes in stories. I loved it – especially the discussion stemmed from ascian3’s mentioning various hero types and their representation in the stories we know. I would enjoy it even more if I could add something useful myself. For half a time I sat silent, feeling like a supreme idiot and trying to get on opening to tell what I wanted to tell - which was to look at archetypes at different angle. I don’t know whether I managed to do it, but I did tell some of what I was planning to tell – namely about connections our brains make between most unlike stories and what those connections may help us discover. Still, I truly enjoyed this panel, and we ended it with the feeling that we all could talk for the whole day or more about the same things.
My point: I grabbed onto this panel with the view of a broad exploration of connections we - each of us - make between the characters and the stories told in Jossverse and everywhere else. Why do we make those connections? What do we pick up there? It seems to me consistent with the definitions of the Archetypes. Here is the connections my mind keep making - I keep seeing similarities between Angel and Wes the epic heroes of old days. Russian epic heroes, to be honest - which I pretty sure was not the authors' intention. But I see that Angel is just like Ilya Muromets, and Wesley is just Dobrynya Nikitich and I wonder why?
and when I see the world through Joss-coloured glasses, I am pretty sure that Artemis was the Vampire Slayer. I kind of started to write a story about it...
Building on old archetypes and conventions our heroes become three-dimensional characters, and then they become new archetypes - why fans see Spike in so many others, like sawyer from Lost, like Logan from VM?
I already knew that I will love being on same panel withascian3, but I just want to mention that it was a blast meeting other panellists as well – I mean both my panels, of course.
After that I felt I could do more panels, but all mine were over. Well, may be the next time – and being in the audience is fun as well, plus no pressure to say something smart. ;)
Badfic panel was probably the funniest ever, and all the author were truly brilliant in creating out incredibly bad and hilarious stories of the remarkably bad and hilarious stories. I was just taking pictures to capture some of the spirit of it. ;)
Saturday panels seemed not as memorable after that – or maybe I just made some wrong choices. One interesting panel was Fanthropology, where we had fun and civil discussion about what it means to be a fan, what is a real fan, fandom features and trends, who are we and what are we doing here, anyway. The fandom trends mutated into discussions of male sand females and gender influence on the fandom. It was a fun discussions, and I learned lots about other fandoms, ones I have no connections with normally. Of course, it turned out that some attendees chose to feel oppressed there... Well..
The conversation went fast, and the time flew unnoticed – we all love to talk about ourselves. The topic was fathomless, though one thing I wish we had time to touch – the phenomena of BNF.
The most memorable moment: one of the panellists asked, how many of us after the Writercon will run to add friends to their LJ f-lists – everyone in the audience I could see raised their hands. And – after the Writercon - we did friended lots of people we met.
My own observation that, inside BtVS and AtS fandom, we settled in our opinions and beliefs and rarely seeking to prove them right and everyone else wrong. The arguments are not as bitter as two years ago, and we – at the Writercon at least - felt more united by our love for the shows and our friends than divided by our opinions about those shows.
On many things we, it seems, simply agreed to disagree – though opinions do change from time to time, and it was something that – surprisingly – we discussed at Erotica (het) panel. One of examples of this agreement to disagree I noticed at the Religion panel. The panellists, harmonyfb and Rhonda V. Wilcox, when talking about panel topics and brought in their interpretations of the event of Chosen - interpretation that were quite contrary to each other, without anyone noting about it. It was good. We all know already where and how we differ, and there is no sense in arguing over same old points, when we can focus on something new - not necessarily new shows, but the new thoughts.
Moving onto the Religion panel, Sunday morning. It was fun and delicious, but it felt a little bit as introduction to the topic - the panellists touched the various moments and themes and ideas, but the topic seemed to huge to ponder as whole and no one could limit the discussion by one aspect of it. The definitely was a feeling that this panel could go on and on - and it did - in the form ofthechurchofjoss. I cannot remember anything particular about this panel though. ;)
The last panel I was present (somewhat late, but at the best part) was Magic, Science, and Technology panel. I think it was my favourite one - maybe because it was the last, and hence very memorable, or maybe because it got me thinking on some really cool stuff that still lives in my head.
those things are suspension of disbelief - where is that magical nail we can suspend our disbelief from to enjoy the story? - and interestingly, we find that it is much easier to suspend disbelief in a vampire story, than in supposedly real police or medical procedural show. It also worth noting that, in my opinion, each show has its inner logic, the set of rules on which the show reality operates on. and agreeing to suspend disbelief according to this logic or not influence our perception of the story.
another moment worth thinking about - the price of knowledge in Jossverse, whether curiosity and knowledge is punished by the 'verse or just certain aspects of it, or not at all?
the discussion went on to the discussion of names - the filing and giving things names, in which magic and science take their power. We were talking about it in terms of the stories, but then it occurred to me that we can turn it on ourself - are we not giving ourselves names and hence re-creating ourselves in fandom (or generally in the virtual world)?
on this intriguing thought the time was over.
and then Writercon ended.
some random bits:
1. I felt way too sleepy the first tow nights, and was annoyed by it - what's the point to be sleepy instead of hanging out with people and doing mischief?
2. But on Saturday night I was dancing and dancing and having a jolly good time just enough.
3. I want rum - and I blame Writercon for it.
4. I regret not asking anyone to hook me up on Doctor Who. I would like to check it out, but the DVD's price is insane. Seriously insane.
5. Why couldn't I be present on everything that was going on? So much cool stuff missed!
6. People asked me about my scarf: it's from my friend who designed it and Argentinian artisans who made it:http://www.pampacorral.com/
writercon post that I was planning to make.I mostly stuck to the Myth track panels, occasionally going for others, and sometimes trying to do some panel-hopping, in order to get at least a taste of two panels at the same time- it didn’t do much good, as I felt I missed something from both panels.
Most of the things I do remember are my own thoughts and questions.
The first panel was the one about natural and chosen families. It was nice, albeit probably a little bit slow – due to it being one of the first panels and everyone is still warming up. The panellists agreed on the importance of the chosen families and compared the chosen families in the discussed shows and fanfics to the chosen family of the fandom.
My note: Nobody actually makes a list of people with whom one wants to form such a family – can you imagine Angel making such a list after moving from Sunnydale to L.A.? Can you imagine Angel then planning a family with Cordelia, Wes and Gunn? Speaking of chosen families, it is interesting to note the dynamics of creating one – out of whoever is around. In this sense you choose your family and your family chooses you.
The next panel was The world without shrimp, about the importance of setting (though I do wish occasionally we could discuss the importance of shrimp as well!). Anyway, here I was one of the panellists, together with
nwhepcat (the moderator), ascian3, mosca and Susan Sizemore. We had a lively discussion about the difference between stories told that set in one place (Sunnydale, Neptune, L.A., N.Y and the stories that set on a spaceship that go from place to place (or other travelling stories). We touched the influence setting has on the stories and the characters, and I talked about the influence characters have on setting, and we discussed how different cities tell different kinds of stories.My point: Sunnydale is a Room of Requirement of sorts. It is what it needs to be, it has what it needs at the moment and it reflects Buffy's state of mind - if not in actual geography then in the feel of the place. We start with the LA girl coming in the town with only one Starbucks (that we never see) and one place to go - The Bronze. Then we learn that it has 46 churches, docks, UCLA campus, etc. In season 6, on the contrary, the world beyond Sunnydale doesn't seem to exist and Sunnydale itself shrinks to cemeteries, Casa Summers, DMP, and Spike crypt. Just like the grave, really - and we end up with the glimpse of the world as a beautiful garden. in season 7 we start with the shining sun, shining new high school and glimpses of the world beyond Sunnydale. then the whole world comes to Buffy's place, and Buffy's house becomes the whole world. Shrinkage ensues. Then our heroes go deep (strange in the conventional tactics' sense, yet appropriate if we see Sunnydale as reflection of their inner self) and the story ends with an open road.
One question or a remark from the audience I remember – I cannot recall the name of the lady who asked it though. The remark was – it’s financial concerns that rule the choice of setting, not the demands of a story. And the claustrophobic sense of season 6 of BtVS, that is, as I said, was consistent with Buffy’s feelings owes not to Buffy, but to move from WB to UPN. It made sense, of course, but it was like reminding us that we were talking about TV shows, and vampires and vampires slayers, and interspace travels don’t exist. Which is – Duh! We know that, we really do. Why did we waste so much time and money on the Writecon and fandom again? We are aware that the flow of the story often depends on the outside factors – such as actors’ availability, money, network’s decision to close the show or editor’s opinion in case of a book. All this doesn’t change our ability to discuss a story as it is – or that it still makes sense for us to discuss the story at all. Mosca, I believe, expressed this sentiment all panellists shared.
The next panel I was a panellist on was about archetypes in the stories. Other panellists were
thedeadlyhook (moderator), ascian3, denny_dc and Susan Sizemore. The most remarkable for me at the moment was the amazingly responsive and active audience and seized the discussion and took it where it liked it – to the comics and various types of heroes in stories. I loved it – especially the discussion stemmed from ascian3’s mentioning various hero types and their representation in the stories we know. I would enjoy it even more if I could add something useful myself. For half a time I sat silent, feeling like a supreme idiot and trying to get on opening to tell what I wanted to tell - which was to look at archetypes at different angle. I don’t know whether I managed to do it, but I did tell some of what I was planning to tell – namely about connections our brains make between most unlike stories and what those connections may help us discover. Still, I truly enjoyed this panel, and we ended it with the feeling that we all could talk for the whole day or more about the same things.My point: I grabbed onto this panel with the view of a broad exploration of connections we - each of us - make between the characters and the stories told in Jossverse and everywhere else. Why do we make those connections? What do we pick up there? It seems to me consistent with the definitions of the Archetypes. Here is the connections my mind keep making - I keep seeing similarities between Angel and Wes the epic heroes of old days. Russian epic heroes, to be honest - which I pretty sure was not the authors' intention. But I see that Angel is just like Ilya Muromets, and Wesley is just Dobrynya Nikitich and I wonder why?
and when I see the world through Joss-coloured glasses, I am pretty sure that Artemis was the Vampire Slayer. I kind of started to write a story about it...
Building on old archetypes and conventions our heroes become three-dimensional characters, and then they become new archetypes - why fans see Spike in so many others, like sawyer from Lost, like Logan from VM?
I already knew that I will love being on same panel with
ascian3, but I just want to mention that it was a blast meeting other panellists as well – I mean both my panels, of course.After that I felt I could do more panels, but all mine were over. Well, may be the next time – and being in the audience is fun as well, plus no pressure to say something smart. ;)
Badfic panel was probably the funniest ever, and all the author were truly brilliant in creating out incredibly bad and hilarious stories of the remarkably bad and hilarious stories. I was just taking pictures to capture some of the spirit of it. ;)
Saturday panels seemed not as memorable after that – or maybe I just made some wrong choices. One interesting panel was Fanthropology, where we had fun and civil discussion about what it means to be a fan, what is a real fan, fandom features and trends, who are we and what are we doing here, anyway. The fandom trends mutated into discussions of male sand females and gender influence on the fandom. It was a fun discussions, and I learned lots about other fandoms, ones I have no connections with normally. Of course, it turned out that some attendees chose to feel oppressed there... Well..
The conversation went fast, and the time flew unnoticed – we all love to talk about ourselves. The topic was fathomless, though one thing I wish we had time to touch – the phenomena of BNF.
The most memorable moment: one of the panellists asked, how many of us after the Writercon will run to add friends to their LJ f-lists – everyone in the audience I could see raised their hands. And – after the Writercon - we did friended lots of people we met.
My own observation that, inside BtVS and AtS fandom, we settled in our opinions and beliefs and rarely seeking to prove them right and everyone else wrong. The arguments are not as bitter as two years ago, and we – at the Writercon at least - felt more united by our love for the shows and our friends than divided by our opinions about those shows.
On many things we, it seems, simply agreed to disagree – though opinions do change from time to time, and it was something that – surprisingly – we discussed at Erotica (het) panel. One of examples of this agreement to disagree I noticed at the Religion panel. The panellists, harmonyfb and Rhonda V. Wilcox, when talking about panel topics and brought in their interpretations of the event of Chosen - interpretation that were quite contrary to each other, without anyone noting about it. It was good. We all know already where and how we differ, and there is no sense in arguing over same old points, when we can focus on something new - not necessarily new shows, but the new thoughts.
Moving onto the Religion panel, Sunday morning. It was fun and delicious, but it felt a little bit as introduction to the topic - the panellists touched the various moments and themes and ideas, but the topic seemed to huge to ponder as whole and no one could limit the discussion by one aspect of it. The definitely was a feeling that this panel could go on and on - and it did - in the form of
thechurchofjoss. I cannot remember anything particular about this panel though. ;)The last panel I was present (somewhat late, but at the best part) was Magic, Science, and Technology panel. I think it was my favourite one - maybe because it was the last, and hence very memorable, or maybe because it got me thinking on some really cool stuff that still lives in my head.
those things are suspension of disbelief - where is that magical nail we can suspend our disbelief from to enjoy the story? - and interestingly, we find that it is much easier to suspend disbelief in a vampire story, than in supposedly real police or medical procedural show. It also worth noting that, in my opinion, each show has its inner logic, the set of rules on which the show reality operates on. and agreeing to suspend disbelief according to this logic or not influence our perception of the story.
another moment worth thinking about - the price of knowledge in Jossverse, whether curiosity and knowledge is punished by the 'verse or just certain aspects of it, or not at all?
the discussion went on to the discussion of names - the filing and giving things names, in which magic and science take their power. We were talking about it in terms of the stories, but then it occurred to me that we can turn it on ourself - are we not giving ourselves names and hence re-creating ourselves in fandom (or generally in the virtual world)?
on this intriguing thought the time was over.
and then Writercon ended.
some random bits:
1. I felt way too sleepy the first tow nights, and was annoyed by it - what's the point to be sleepy instead of hanging out with people and doing mischief?
2. But on Saturday night I was dancing and dancing and having a jolly good time just enough.
3. I want rum - and I blame Writercon for it.
4. I regret not asking anyone to hook me up on Doctor Who. I would like to check it out, but the DVD's price is insane. Seriously insane.
5. Why couldn't I be present on everything that was going on? So much cool stuff missed!
6. People asked me about my scarf: it's from my friend who designed it and Argentinian artisans who made it:http://www.pampacorral.com/
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Date: 2006-08-09 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-08-14 09:20 pm (UTC)I do plan to write up some more on that as well.