dolorosa_12 | Worldcon 2019: Day 3

I've fallen behind on these posts a little, and for that I apologise. I should have the last three days written up by the end of this (in the UK) long weekend.

Misconceptions in medieval history, with panelists Rebecca Slitt, S.A. Chakraborty and Dr Kate Laity, moderated by E.C. Ambrose.

The medieval period is a rich source of inspiration for writers of speculative fiction, but medieval life has been so romanticised in popular culture that it has become hard to separate the chaff of fiction from the wheat of historical fact. Our panel of medievalists will saddle up their warhorses and ride to rescue the damsel of medieval history!

This was one the panels I'd had my eye on from the beginning. As a former medievalist (and someone who's done her fair share of eye-rolling at dreadful 'medieval' 'Celtic' fantasy), this panel was music to my ears, particularly when they blamed the early modern period (and early modernist scholars) for popularising the idea of the Middle Ages as a time of ignorance, barbarity and superstition. People have always moved around, crossed oceans and borders, communicated, and exchanged goods and ideas. It was also good to see all panelists condemn the way neo-Nazi movements have tried to coopt the Middle Ages, while pointing out that modern political agendas have always been mapped back onto the past (which is certainly something that's obvious to any medievalist grappling not only with modern translations and editions of medieval texts but also the various pieces of secondary research and criticism of these texts that have accumulated over the years).

Invisible work: mothers and caregivers in SFF, with panelists Aliette de Bodard, Kate Elliott and Rivers Solomon, moderated by Silvia Spruck Wrigley

A query online for mothers in SFF led to endless lists of the most badass mothers, but why must mothers be badass in order to be valid? Do characters like single mother Nicole Reese in Raising Dion represent a change in the depiction of SF motherhood? The panel will discuss the depiction of mothers and carers in SFF and how it aligns with the politics of motherhood in the wider world.

This, again, was one of the panels I'd decided to attend immediately upon reading the program. Two of my favourite authors, both of whom write mothers and motherhood so well (and have spoken publicly about this being a deliberate choice to push back against absent or badly written mothers in the genre), plus another author whose work I admire, talking about a subject extremely dear to my heart. This panel was EXCELLENT! There wasn't very much that was new if you'd read fiction by these authors, plus essays like Aliette's 'On Motherhood and Erasure' or Kate's 'Writing Women Characters into Epic Fantasy without Quotas' or this conversation between her and Ken Liu, but it was magical to hear these writers speaking about how hurtful and painful it is to read stories with dead, absent, or unimportant mothers, and what they do to push back against this. One point they put very strongly was that this erasure of motherhood and 'women's work' is part of a broader cultural erasure of community — we valorise self-sufficiency to the detriment of everything else. The Western cultural narrative that to be a fully realised adult means you must cut yourself off from your parents and not listen to them; you have to succeed by yourself, and if you don't you're a failure, and this makes it really hard for people to ask for help. All these insidious, poisonous narratives seep into fiction.

After this I went to a kaffeeklatsch with Kate Elliott: a group of eight of us, sitting around a table, asking her questions and listening to her talk about worldbuilding, history, the craft of writing, and all her fabulous stories. I had to queue for ages to get a place in this session, and it was really worth it.

I then caught up with

dhampyresa, who I was meeting in real life for the first time. We wandered around for a bit trying to find a place to sit down, and then ended up in the next panel, where we also bumped into

schneefink.

What fanfiction can teach genre writers, with panelists Naomi Novik and Kate Sheehy, moderated by Sara-Jayne Slack.

Fanfiction’s popularity continues to grow, tapping into the special creative connection between authors and fans. What is it about this literary nexus that is so fascinating and stimulating for fans? And what might authors have to learn from fans who write it?

Novik got a massive round of applause when she introduced herself by saying 'I started the Ao3' — this was very much an in-crowd event. There was a lot of discussion of the community aspect of fanfiction, that it takes a solitary activity (engaging with canon, and writing stories) and makes it a conversation. The panelists also expressed frustration with the way originality is valorised — in fanfiction it's okay to write what the reader expects; there is a place for that, a place for telling the same missing moment, trope, AU again and again and again.

All three of us had been planning to attend a panel called 'How not to make feudal mistakes', but it was back to back with the fanfic one, and so popular that Matthias, who was queuing for that panel, sent me a message to say not to bother, as the room was full. So instead

schneefink and I went to a different session, my last panel for the day.

Children's books: the gateway drug, with panelists Gilli Bar-Hillel, Holly Black, Ben Hennessy and Lee Moyer, moderated by Oisín McGann.

For most of us, exposure to sci-fi and fantasy starts as children. At what point does imaginative children’s book illustration start being labelled ‘fantasy’? What creators influenced you? How aware are these two industries of each other? We talk to people who’ve had experience of both.

This panel was an unexpected delight. The panelists were a great mix of authors, illustrators and animators, and spoke with deep affection for children's fiction. One thing I learnt in this panel which was news to me is that visual literacy (the ability to interpret images as story, read works such as picture books and comic books in which text and image are a harmonious whole) is something you need to learn in childhood, in much the same way as speaking, reading and writing text, and it's close to impossible to learn in adulthood. So reading picture books with children is not just important for textual literacy and verbal vocabulary — it gives them a visual vocabulary and literacy as well.

After this I caught up with Matthias (who had been assiduously taking notes on the 'feudal mistakes' panel, which I will transcribe later), and we had dinner at an Indian restaurant with

naye and

doctorskuld, before all four of us trooped back to the convention centre for the Terra Ignota spoiler chat with Ada Palmer.

This was wonderful — a room full of fans speculating and unravelling the series together, prompted occasionally by questions or remarks by Ada. All I can say is that her students (her dayjob is being a university lecturer in history) are very lucky to have her, and her joy at prompting us to understanding and curiousity was palpable. The session was meant to go for an hour, but after an hour and a half it was still going strong, and Matthias,

doctorskuld and I were feeling a bit overwhelmed (it was 11pm), so we decamped to the room next door to John Scalzi's 'Dance Across the Decades' event — a dance party, DJed by Scalzi, playing the most glorious 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s cheese. We danced for hours, while

naye stayed to the end of Ada's event, which wrapped up after two and a half hours!

I really felt that these two evening events — the dance, and the spoiler chat — were acts of such extraordinary generosity. They went far beyond just promoting the authors' works or fulfilling contractual obligations to sign books, participate on panels and so on. They were a gift to us, as fans and convention-goers, and I enjoyed both immensely.