Friday, July 16, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Readercon
Went to Readercon, in Burlington, MA. It's a con devoted to SF/F literature- no movies, no tv, no comics. It's a little academic but once you get past the pretentious panel descriptions, not in a way that shuts people out. I went to a "Metaphysics in SF" panel this morning and was able to follow all the physics stuff. Well, when the panelists and audience members enunciated. Because nerds have so much info and opinions in their heads and it all tries to come out at once, and if you're nervous...this can result in long strings of babbling that grow increasingly incoherent.
It's a great old fashioned con, the kind where you can buy cheap day passes and as long as you don't leave and try to get back in, they'll overlook the fact that you've been there all night and didn't pay for a second day. Everything as cheap or free as possible because people come to share ideas, not to be awed by spectacle.
They didn't have an Art/Collectible dealer's room but they did have a large bookstore selling used and antique SF/F books.
On the rack of flyers advertising upcoming cons, discussion groups and new SF books for the fall, I saw a handful of promotional bookmarks for a Donna Andrews mystery. I was briefly surprised until I remembered that the mystery solving couple in the books consists of a SF tv actor and a Ren Faire blacksmith and that one of her mysteries is a very accurate takeoff on SF conventions. She's OoU, I guess?
Burlington itself is suburban Hell. "Mall Road" which the hotel was on, seems to have been designed to prevent first time visitors from ever getting out. It took us 45 minutes to get into the hotel parking lot, even after we found the hotel. But it is one of the easier towns to get to in MA. It takes less than an hour, with no toll roads.
I went to the "Fanfic as Criticism" panel first. Good stuff, about the question of whether fanfiction is a method fans use to critique the author indirectly. My only real quibble was the idea that nobody is writing Temeraire fan fiction because "Naomi Novik doesn't leave any questions unanswered so fan writers don't have a way in" (paraphrased, implication being her books are just that perfect).
No, it's because 1) Not enough people have heard of it, for a number of reasons and 2) she went and got herself involved in fandom politics. Instead of being the impartial, far away entity that most authors are, she has taken sides. So people who don't like the group she's publicly aligned herself with are going to avoid going anywhere near a Naomi Novik book, let alone spend time writing fic for it. They may even resent the author as a person for looking like she endorses some of the stuff going on (or they resent her for having the cake of continuing to write fan fiction under a pen name while also getting to eat the cake of being a real published author, this may strike people as slightly unfair). The issue in question, btw, is perhaps one of the most widely debated and heavily divisive in the entire history of fanfiction. Who you side with matters in a way that little else in fandom ever has.
Knowing that the author is posting fanfiction, even if it's not in her own fandom, may also put people off from doing it. It's harder to be completely honest when you know she's somewhere nearby. And if the biggest fan fic writing fandoms grow up around the most flawed stories, maybe it's not such a great idea to know *so much* about how fan fic writers think?
It's like that story about my aunt and the pizza. "There's nothing to scrape off!"
The guy who asked for recommendations of fan fiction was funny because that's like asking "out of all the possible pairs of shoes in the world, which ones should I buy? And tell me without knowing my size or what I plan to use them for."
We had an early dinner at Fitzwilliam's Pub in the hotel. Very crowded, very noisy, very confused waiters, but interesting atmosphere and good food. They serve their soups with "cheddar planks", which are thin, stiff crackers fried with cheddar cheese. A little salty and peppery though.
The other restaurant in the hotel is called Summer and Winter, run by two gourmet chefs from Maine and seems to specialize in high end salads. My friend warned me it was expensive, and when I looked at the menu posted outside I was like “Yeaaah. Not eating there.” I immediately roll my eyes at anyone who pretends their mayonnaise is "aioli" anyway.
I saw the Kirk Poland Bad Fiction Prize or whatever it's called, and it was hilarious!
But why was there what looked like an eight year old child there? Not only were almost all the passages quite raunchy but it started at 10 pm and let out at 11. Why was that kid even still up for something that can't have interested him? There was an involved joke at the start about how the prize was “John Norman's consciousness” loaded onto both a floppy disk and a reel of computer punch tape. There is no aspect of that joke that kid could have understood.
"Mommy, who is John Norman?"
"He wrote books about a planet where everyone thought it was okay to be really mean to women, and he wasn't a very good writer."
"Mommy, what's punch tape?"
"It's what they used in computers when your grandparents were teenagers. A floppy disk is what they used in computers when I was in middle school."
"Mommy, why is that funny?"
"It's funny because those are prizes no one wants...It's getting a little late for you, isn't it, honey?"
I went to Get Lamp: A Text Adventure Documentary after. The filmmaker wears a porkpie hat but let's not hold that against him. It was interesting, and tugged at the heart strings a little. The movie, I mean, not his hat. It's the story of Infocom and text adventure games. Which I have never played, but the human aspect was fascinating. Apparently they are very popular with the visually impaired, which makes an amazing amount of DUH sense.
The academics and business people interviewed are able to look people in the eye, but a lot of the computer programmers seemed unable to look directly at the camera. Could be common neurological afflictions of the type found in nerdery, or just that if you spend your life on a computer, you don't know where to look when you're not in front of a computer.
I am not disrespecting the film at all when I say I'd love to see Christopher Guest do a takeoff on it. Much like Jason Scott (the filmmaker), he specializes in filming stories about small groups of awkward people obsessed with things the rest of the world doesn't understand or care about and making you root for them because of it. They're mockumentaries, but done with such attention to detail. There was a woman interviewed named Mary Ann Buckles who looked like, and had the exact same mannerisms as a brunette Meryl Streep. Same delighted laugh and everything. I also saw a Steve Martin, a Bill Murray, a Judah Friedlander and a Geoffrey Palmer. I'm sure parts could be found for his favorite go to actors Eugene Levy and Parker Posey.
It's a great old fashioned con, the kind where you can buy cheap day passes and as long as you don't leave and try to get back in, they'll overlook the fact that you've been there all night and didn't pay for a second day. Everything as cheap or free as possible because people come to share ideas, not to be awed by spectacle.
They didn't have an Art/Collectible dealer's room but they did have a large bookstore selling used and antique SF/F books.
On the rack of flyers advertising upcoming cons, discussion groups and new SF books for the fall, I saw a handful of promotional bookmarks for a Donna Andrews mystery. I was briefly surprised until I remembered that the mystery solving couple in the books consists of a SF tv actor and a Ren Faire blacksmith and that one of her mysteries is a very accurate takeoff on SF conventions. She's OoU, I guess?
Burlington itself is suburban Hell. "Mall Road" which the hotel was on, seems to have been designed to prevent first time visitors from ever getting out. It took us 45 minutes to get into the hotel parking lot, even after we found the hotel. But it is one of the easier towns to get to in MA. It takes less than an hour, with no toll roads.
I went to the "Fanfic as Criticism" panel first. Good stuff, about the question of whether fanfiction is a method fans use to critique the author indirectly. My only real quibble was the idea that nobody is writing Temeraire fan fiction because "Naomi Novik doesn't leave any questions unanswered so fan writers don't have a way in" (paraphrased, implication being her books are just that perfect).
No, it's because 1) Not enough people have heard of it, for a number of reasons and 2) she went and got herself involved in fandom politics. Instead of being the impartial, far away entity that most authors are, she has taken sides. So people who don't like the group she's publicly aligned herself with are going to avoid going anywhere near a Naomi Novik book, let alone spend time writing fic for it. They may even resent the author as a person for looking like she endorses some of the stuff going on (or they resent her for having the cake of continuing to write fan fiction under a pen name while also getting to eat the cake of being a real published author, this may strike people as slightly unfair). The issue in question, btw, is perhaps one of the most widely debated and heavily divisive in the entire history of fanfiction. Who you side with matters in a way that little else in fandom ever has.
Knowing that the author is posting fanfiction, even if it's not in her own fandom, may also put people off from doing it. It's harder to be completely honest when you know she's somewhere nearby. And if the biggest fan fic writing fandoms grow up around the most flawed stories, maybe it's not such a great idea to know *so much* about how fan fic writers think?
It's like that story about my aunt and the pizza. "There's nothing to scrape off!"
The guy who asked for recommendations of fan fiction was funny because that's like asking "out of all the possible pairs of shoes in the world, which ones should I buy? And tell me without knowing my size or what I plan to use them for."
We had an early dinner at Fitzwilliam's Pub in the hotel. Very crowded, very noisy, very confused waiters, but interesting atmosphere and good food. They serve their soups with "cheddar planks", which are thin, stiff crackers fried with cheddar cheese. A little salty and peppery though.
The other restaurant in the hotel is called Summer and Winter, run by two gourmet chefs from Maine and seems to specialize in high end salads. My friend warned me it was expensive, and when I looked at the menu posted outside I was like “Yeaaah. Not eating there.” I immediately roll my eyes at anyone who pretends their mayonnaise is "aioli" anyway.
I saw the Kirk Poland Bad Fiction Prize or whatever it's called, and it was hilarious!
But why was there what looked like an eight year old child there? Not only were almost all the passages quite raunchy but it started at 10 pm and let out at 11. Why was that kid even still up for something that can't have interested him? There was an involved joke at the start about how the prize was “John Norman's consciousness” loaded onto both a floppy disk and a reel of computer punch tape. There is no aspect of that joke that kid could have understood.
"Mommy, who is John Norman?"
"He wrote books about a planet where everyone thought it was okay to be really mean to women, and he wasn't a very good writer."
"Mommy, what's punch tape?"
"It's what they used in computers when your grandparents were teenagers. A floppy disk is what they used in computers when I was in middle school."
"Mommy, why is that funny?"
"It's funny because those are prizes no one wants...It's getting a little late for you, isn't it, honey?"
I went to Get Lamp: A Text Adventure Documentary after. The filmmaker wears a porkpie hat but let's not hold that against him. It was interesting, and tugged at the heart strings a little. The movie, I mean, not his hat. It's the story of Infocom and text adventure games. Which I have never played, but the human aspect was fascinating. Apparently they are very popular with the visually impaired, which makes an amazing amount of DUH sense.
The academics and business people interviewed are able to look people in the eye, but a lot of the computer programmers seemed unable to look directly at the camera. Could be common neurological afflictions of the type found in nerdery, or just that if you spend your life on a computer, you don't know where to look when you're not in front of a computer.
I am not disrespecting the film at all when I say I'd love to see Christopher Guest do a takeoff on it. Much like Jason Scott (the filmmaker), he specializes in filming stories about small groups of awkward people obsessed with things the rest of the world doesn't understand or care about and making you root for them because of it. They're mockumentaries, but done with such attention to detail. There was a woman interviewed named Mary Ann Buckles who looked like, and had the exact same mannerisms as a brunette Meryl Streep. Same delighted laugh and everything. I also saw a Steve Martin, a Bill Murray, a Judah Friedlander and a Geoffrey Palmer. I'm sure parts could be found for his favorite go to actors Eugene Levy and Parker Posey.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Eating Out: Wilbur's Family Diner
Wilbur's Family Diner in North Hampton is...strange. One the one hand, it's your classic old fashioned diner. It serves classic diner food like cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, thick, classic cut french fries, and an extensive all day classic breakfast menu for worryingly reasonable prices. On the other hand, it all feels like they just set it up, even though it has been in the same spot for twenty years. Like a random office where someone just put tables in and started serving food.
Service was quicker than most places I've eaten lately and I think we got our money's worth.
Service was quicker than most places I've eaten lately and I think we got our money's worth.
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