WisCon in Bullet Points

[forestofglory]

I’m back from WisCon! I had a great time and the con though now I think I might have concurd -- anyways I’m not feeling great today. But here are some of the things that happened.

*Friday morning I was able to go see an Aldo Leopold exhibit at the University library. It was very wet that morning and I got rather wet. But I’m glad I went.

*Two themes that seemed to crop up everywhere this year, on panels, in speeches, in conversations in the hallways, were hope and community. It felt good to be surrounded by so many people who have hope for the future and are working to build communities.

*Two books I found myself talking about again and again where Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and A Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski. I also recommend Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold several times, and “Pan-Humanism: Hope and Pragmatics” at least once. A panelist mentioned Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma and I latter ran into them and we had a nice mutual squee about how much we love that novella and how it makes us both feel so seen in different ways.

*I was on four panels. One of which I was the mod for. I think this was a little bit too much, but all of them were fun. I got to talk about ecology and or planning on every panel. And on my Hopepunk paneI I talked about the problems with the Agrarian ideals in the US. I love that panels give me an opportunity to talk to this kind of thing. A couple people came up to me and said they enjoyed what I had to say on panels so I think I was pretty successful.

*My bakesale cookies arrived in good condition and as far as I can tell people liked them.

*Even though it was not my first WisCon I attend a first WisCon dinner and met many lovely people.

*I attended fewer panels than I would have liked but the one of the standouts was Domestic Life in Small Spaces. This was a panel I proposed, was on at FOGcon so it was fun to see a different take on it.

*I ate many yummy foods! The con hotel makes a really good grilled cheese. I also had ice cream, fancy pizza, and many many pastries.

*One of the lovely things about cons is getting to eat meal with friends I ate most of my meals with various members of Team Sparkle Rocket. By I also had lovely lunches with Charles Payseur and family, and oursin

*My friend Ira launched a campaign for new Hugo category: Best Game or Interactive Experience! Check it out! I’ve been helping them by advising on the Hugo rules process. (I also helped them put up some flyers at WisCon)

Comments

[forestofglory]

I tend to be in favor of having more categories so we can honor more awesome things. But I also don't vote in every category; I just focus on the ones I enjoy.

(I'm bitter about the series award for reasons unrelated to whether its a good idea or not but I will say that so far the finalist have been more diverse that I would have expected.)

[ambyr]

That's fair--I will admit my completionist streak is neither rational nor wise! (And there already are categories I ignore entirely, like Podcast [not my area of interest] and Editor Long Form [which I think is difficult if not impossible to judge and basically becomes Most Popular Editor]. So I guess I can just keep ignoring more...)

I would probably feel less exhaustion if it wasn't a retro Hugo year, too. At least everything was shorter in 1943.

[forestofglory]

Yeah, I think the editor categories are really hard to judge and generally don't bother.

I've never really bothered with the retro-Hugos. It just seems odd to me to award them so long after the fact. Of course current voters are going to come up with totally different winners that voters back in 1943 would have. I kinda wish they hadn't opened up the war years to Retro Hugos.

[ambyr]

I enjoy the challenge of tracking down the books-as-published in 1943 and pretending that I'm living in the past (since current editions tend to be heavily rewritten or revised), but if I didn't work where I work and have access to the collection that I do, I'd probably just throw my hands up in despair. (Or I'd be more into reading pirated scans online, I guess.) And this approach does mean flat-out No Awarding some things, like The Glass Bead Game, which wasn't translated to English until 1949 and so playing by my rules is unreadable for me.

I do genuinely love 1940s films, so that part has been a lot of fun.