What do you get when you take away the Klingon costumes, paintings of silver coiffed elves and drooling aliens, Regency dancing, dragon earrings, and fans with enormous... enthusiasm? You get Readercon. It was more intellectual, far more sedate, the dealer's room only sold books, and the panelists mentioned Twain and Godot and reached further into the canon taught in universities as well as the influence of pop culture. It was like visiting college and all your favorite writers happened to be lecturing that day.
Here is my top quote of the weekend. "Disney is a roach motel of culture: myths check in and never check out." --Jonathan Lethem.
Here are my sketches of Lethem and the talented Paul Park. I didn't do nearly as many sketches at this convention, I was lounging in the writer's side of my brain.
I went with my wonderful friend Deborah Atherton. It was her birthday weekend and she is one who does not encourage too much fuss. Notable was whistling "Happy Birthday" to her in the swanky hotel restaurant with Ernest Lilley and getting a round of applause from nearby tables. Her birthday somehow translated into a number of happy luck moments for me. For instance I said "you know Deb, I think I'd like to design some science fiction and fantasy covers, I come to enough of these conventions and read the reads." I check my email and a publisher is contacting me about freelance designing some sci fi/fantasy covers! I go to an excellent panel on historical fiction, tell John Crowley after that I'm researching 1911 for a novel and he gives me a totally perfect L. Woolf quote that I could use to start the book! It just kept happening.
I am now thinking about how to write/code a hypertext poem. It would give new meaning to "shaped" poetry.
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1 comment:
It was fun, wasn't it? Lovely to spend a whole weekend with very smart people who are all thinking and talking about writing and reading. I remember in our last conversation at the con we were wondering what it would be like in thirty years, and if we might possibly be around to see it-and what exactly reading and writing would look like then. I expect thinking will be much the same - but then, I could be wrong!
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