Open to suggestion

[james_davis_nicoll]

What panel topics would induce you to watch if I was one of the panelists?

I've suggested one on space colonization with me, Charles Stross and a couple of Space Colony True Believers, as well as something related to my f/m posts.

Comments

[bibliofile]

An option that might prove more entertaining for the audience than for you: a James blog live sort of experience. Tell cat stories! Poll the audience! Someone on the side to hold up signs as appropriate (e.g., "memetic prophylactic recommended")!

Or maybe an Iron Blog competition with you & Stross and a few other likely suspects....

[thejeopardymaze]

Cats.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

The prevalence of DOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

Greg Bear -- threat, menace, or distraction?

Cats.

[seawasp]

"The Unchanging and Eternal Stars" sounds promising.

"Doom, Doom, and Doomy Doom" would be fun.

Space Colonization you already have -- as long as there's plenty of discussion of our Helium-3 mining.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is I don't care about Bear. In fact, that's one of the great tragedies of SF from my personal point of view: the process by which SF authors transform my relationship to their fiction from one of keen interest to total indifference. With people like Paolo Bacigalupi while I loathe every aspect of their fiction, at least I feel something more than complete and utter detachment.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Was it all him, or you too? I think you mentioned coming back to Eon and belatedly realizing that even the parts of the premise that were trying to be hard SF made no sense.

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

Forgive my ignorance, but in what context? I mean, probably an SF convention, but which one? That one in Chicago?

Topics:

Are we getting girl cooties on our science fiction? (For your fm stuff)

Doom: Threat or Menace?

Let's Bash the Popular: Why My Minority Viewpoint is Righter Than Yours
(Solicit a list of popular items and authors one day before the panel. Ready. Set. Go!)

Helium-3 Mining and Captain Scarlet: How we can combine almost every SF show into one baroque fandom

Yngvi Was A Louse: cross-book and cross-series games authors play

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I'd quote from Stover on anthopology here but by reviewing something I'm interacting with it so I am part of the process as well.

Eon is nonsense but at least it was pretty nonsense. Bear's more recent books are just a bit dull, retreats of stuff other people did better first.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Orson Scott Card: How We Should Live.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

That's the impression I got from just reading summaries of them, but I wasn't sure if it was true.

At one time, I thought of Bear as a logical heir to Clarke; he had a similar way with evocative imagery, and his novels tended to have similar themes.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

That one in Chicago, yup. I'm one of the GoH.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Growing Your Con Through Ever More Demanding Standards of Purity

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Speaking of authors whose later books dwindled into a sad echo of what once was....

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Ideology -- threat or menace?

[julesjones]

I'm thinking lunar He3 as a fuel source for space colonisation, with the panel composition you describe in your original post.

[seawasp]

Only if you can include strong representatives of at least three different types of "purity". I want the popcorn concession.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Girl Cooties in Spaaace? With cats.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

"Because I Care"

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

"How I learned to stop worrying and love the bicycle."

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Memetic Prophylaxis Recommendations I Have Made

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

My impression of Greg Bear was that he started as an interesting weird sf writer, but when he was influenced by Poul Anderson, his writing became more normal and less interesting.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Paul Ehrlich Can Rot in Hell: How Pop-Sci Books Damage the Sci-Fi Genre.

[(Anonymous)]

Eternally Screwed Africa and other Stereotypes! In! Space!

The Grim Dead Hand of John W Campbell

James Howard Kunstler: Threat or Menace

On a more serious note, given your creative imagination, a look at SF Deep Futures of the non-Singularity variety might be fascinating.

Bruce

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

Doom: Threat or Menace?

Perfect.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Yes. With accompanying detailed PowerPoint including URLs. And handouts.