Coalescent

As I mentioned a few days ago, the programme for this year's Eastercon is up. Here's my schedule.

Friday, April 14
1330-1430, Argyll 2: The Creative Possibilities of the Fanzine
Fanzines have come a long way since being mimeo'd onto Twiltone. What further creative prospects are there?

Sunday, April 16
1100-1200, Argyll 2: "Why can't they just write it so people can understand?"
What makes writing inaccessible? Are challenging ideas enough to make a challenging work of fiction, or must they be matched by complex language and structures?

1300-1400, Argyll 3: Harrison, Harrison and Clute

1530-1700, Orkney: BSFA Award shorts book group
Group discussion of the short stories nominated for this year's BSFA Award

Monday, April 17
1000-1100, Boardroom: Communal Criticism
Is blogging bringing reviewers out of their ivory towers?

1300-1400, Argyll 1: Does Anyone Watch Broadcast TV Any More?
Between downloading episodes and buying the DVD compilation, does anyone actually watch the original broadcast of SF series any more? How might this change the culture of mutual appreciation of a show?

In summary: call me Mr Eclectic. This is gonna be a good, if occasionally somewhat intimidating, con. So, the obvious question:

[Poll #704540]

How to explain an Eastercon to someone who's never been, or even heard of it? It's six hundred fans (literature fans, mind...) in the same place, over the same weekend, doing a very wide range of things: attending or contributing to panel discussions on anything sf-related you can think of, selling or buying books, producing (or complaining about) the con newsletter, filking (god help us), costuming, building robots, demonstrating how a Tesla coil works, drinking, and, of course, arguing about the definition of a sandwich. But it's also so much more than that.

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So how did it all go down?

Friday might have been the best day. ( Read more... )

A couple of notes on a couple of things:

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Other reports:
Geneva|Lyndsey|Liz|Dougs|hmpf
Related:
Geneva on paper vs. web|Sarah on media programming at cons

And to conclude, the obligatory list of media exchanges.

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And now, I'm off into town. I'll have to catch up on my friends page later.