I will be very busy at Boskone this year, which is good because it's all awesome, except that I don't know that I'll have time to do anything but what's on my schedule, which is a bummer . . .
My schedule:
Tentative plan is for me to arrive in Boston sometime after dinner on Friday, and for us to depart after our programming Sunday and go to my mom's (and then start the drive back home at SteelyKid's bedtime, whee).
Friday 9pm Harbor 2:
The Problem of Glorfindel - and Other Issues in Tolkien
Tolkien's elves never re-used names (they were immortal, after all) yet a Glorfindel lived and died in the First Age of Middle-Earth and another was a character in Lord of the Rings six thousand years later -- what happened? One of the joys of Tolkien's world is that it is so well-realized that minor anomalies (which in a lesser writer would be assumed to be sloppiness) only make it seem more real, since the history of the real worls also abounds in puzzles. Enjoy a walk through Middle-Earth's lesser-know byways. Who was Eldest: Treebeard or Tom Bombadil? What were orcs, actually, since Morgoth could not create anything new? Why are the wood-elves such jerks in The Hobbit? Whatever happend to Ungoliant? Arwen became mortal, but what happened to the sons of Elrond when he took ship for Valinor? Where did Sauron hide the One Ring when he was taken captive to Numinor? Let's take the time to explore these and other intriguing curiosities of Middle Earth.
Mary Kay Kare, Kate Nepveu, Mark L. Olson (m), Tom Shippey
(Tom. Shippey. Tom! Shippey!!)
Saturday 10am Harbor 3:
The Suck Fairy, and Other Horrors of Rereading
The Suck Fairy takes old books you used to like and magically makes them, well, suck. Writer Jo Walton heard tell of this creature at last year's Montreal Worldcon; other participants deduced the existence of a Racism Fairy and a Sexism Fairy as well. Let's discuss particularly painful examples of the influence of these dispiriting sprites on our own (formerly) favorite rereads
Daniel P. Dern, Christopher Golden, Kate Nepveu , Jo Walton (m), Jane Yolen
(We had such a good time with this at Worldcon that I'm really looking forward to it.)
Saturday 11am - 4pm, Outside Galleria:
Tiptree-Brandon Bake Sale
This is not an official program item, but it's what I'm doing with the rest of my Saturday, so: come purchase tasty baked goods, while supporting the Tiptree Award and the Carl Brandon Society!
Sunday 11am Galleria Geeks:
How to Discuss Race and Racism Without Acting Like a Complete Jerk
So, you're thinking about participating in a discussion of race and racism but you're not sure how -- or whether -- to go about it. Here are some tips, suggestions, and things to think about that might help.
Kate Nepveu
(Informal roundtable kinda thing. Thanks to Programming for the invitation and help with this item.)
Sunday 12noon Burroughs:
Legal Systems in Worldbuilding
A common criticism of mediocre science fiction and fantasy is that it assumes wildly different worlds in which people behave exactly the way your neighbors do in Kansas. Many SFF authors assume systems of rules or authority that are only superficially different from models in our own human past or present. Yet, real laws typically change to meet economic, social, religious and technical developements , and differences in human (or non-human) behavior are the most wonder and terrible of all. Think outside of the legal box, and consider the possibilities.
Leah Cypess, Glenn Grant, Kate Nepveu, Ken Schneyer (m)
(In which I will not be the only lawyer!)
Sunday 2pm Lewis:
Pathologies of Fannish Culture
As a fan noted provocatively in one LiveJournal thread: "SF fans are more prone to infection with bad ideas than the average person...They're encouraged to consider possibilities that are way off the path of social functionality, and to have the engineer's affection for simple all-encompassing systems. There's a rich vein of crackpottery at the core of the genre..." Let's see how long it takes our discussion to prove this!
Mary Kay Kare, Laurie Mann (m), Kate Nepveu, Joe Siclari, Rene Walling
(Someone help—I know I could ask Programming but they're so busy—I read that quote at the time and I can't for the life of me think which imbroglio it came out of. Context?)
I haven't even looked at the rest of the schedule yet, but I'm not sure I should: I've already yearned after another Sunday noon panel, "When The Magic Goes Away," which is just so full of goodness (David Anthony Durham, Rosemary Kirstein, Tom Shippey, Jo Walton, and Jane Yolen!) that if I didn't have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, I'd ditch my own darn panel to see. I think that's as much temptation as is good for me . . .