Report From The BSFA Meeting

[coalescent]

That was fun. Some highlights:

- Dan (above centre) heckling the audience as much as the audience heckled him.

- The cheerfulness with which Liz (above right) called Dan a wronghead.

- Andrew: "Complaining Accelerando is about people who are still a bit like us is like complaining that post-nuclear-holocaust stories aren't about piles of dust."

- Martin (above left)'s opinion of the shortlist: there's always a lower place.

- Dan and Abigail discussing Jane Austen (Graham: "Ginger, get the popcorn.")

- General agreement on the brilliance of Air.

- The many many books I came home with, including the beautiful Polder.

Can we do it again sometime?

Comments

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Ah, you got the general gist of it.

"Complaining Accelerando is about people who are still a bit like us is like complaining a nuclear winter story is about the survivors when it should be about the ash."

And I'm pretty sure it was Martin who brought up the complaint first.

What was Dan's exact quote about Charlie gleefully bludgeoning him?

[talvalin.livejournal.com]

Something about Robson info-dumping subtly whereas Stross bludgeons you with a huge grin on his face. That's not really what you were after was it.

Perhaps someone ought to record these things and transcribe them for those immortal quotes.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

When I can afford (1) a good mp3 player and (2) a good microphone attachment, I will start doing just that.

[danmilburn.livejournal.com]

How did people ever manage to record audio in the Old Days eh? ;)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Personally I used my minidisc player. However, the microphone broke and the player itself has started making disconcerting rattling noises during playback. :p

[danmilburn.livejournal.com]

I guess what I was thinking was, wouldn't the easiest solution be to buy a cheap tape-based dictation machine? Dixons have them for £20, which means you can probably get one for half that elsewhere..

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

No. We have those at work; they have a range of about two feet. They record if you are holding them under someone's nose and not otherwise--because they are designed for dictation, not picking up questions from the back of the room.

Plus, tape. Ew!

[mattia.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I'm taking my little tape-based dictaphone (Sony) that's got a big 'ol mic and seems to pick stuff up quite decently, just to make sure I'm not imagining it.

Besides, those tiny tapes are AWESOME. Just because they're tiny.

[nuttyxander.livejournal.com]

And make you feel like a spy.

[immortalradical.livejournal.com]

I believe it was also Martin who made the bludgeoning comment. See how other people on the panel actually said stuff, and everyone just assumed it was me? :P

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Weren't the others just your puppets? I'm much less impressed now that I've found out they're actual people.