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james_davis_nicoll) wrote2012-10-24 11:34 pm
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2012-10-24 11:34 pm
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My preliminary schedule for SFContario 3.
Cut for length
Come out and play with Big Brother
Our panelists discuss trends in dystopic novels and what they might say about the cultures and writers that produced them. Dystopic SF tends by its nature to be bleak. Huxley emphasized the shallow, hollow nature of the pleasures offered by his Brave New World. In more recent dystopic novels characters do have the occasional bit of fun while the world burns. Julian Comstock gives us rollicking adventure alongside its political warnings while heroes of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games learn they can challenge oppressive governments.
(Jeff DeLuzio, Lynna Merrill, James Nicoll, Alex Pantaleev, Peter Watts) Saturday 1:00 PM, Ballroom A
Jo Walton, Author GoH interview - Saturday 3 PM Ballroom BC
I did a pretty bad job of interviewing Scalzi last year so pointers welcome.
What happened to our Utopias?
Finding examples of current SF dystopias is easy. But where are all of the utopias in our SF imagination? It seems that since the 1970s, it is more and more difficult for audiences to find examples of the perfect, harmonized future. Is anybody writing about utopia anymore? Does the lack of utopian fiction and film mean that we, as a society, have lost hope?
(Chandler Davis, Violette Malan, James Nicoll(Moderator), Douglas Smith) Saturday 6:00 PM, Courtyard
And a worse job of being a moderator. Pointers also welcome.
Non-fiction for SF/Fantasy readers
J. B. S. Haldane said, "The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." Can reality provide the same sense of wonder as speculative fiction? Panellists will recommend and discuss works of nonfiction, from ancient history to modern science, that offer the same hit of strangeness and wonder as the best science fiction and fantasy.
(Jonathan Crowe, Shirley Meier, James Nicoll, Jon Singer, Jo Walton) Sunday 11:00 AM, Ballroom BC
Come out and play with Big Brother
Our panelists discuss trends in dystopic novels and what they might say about the cultures and writers that produced them. Dystopic SF tends by its nature to be bleak. Huxley emphasized the shallow, hollow nature of the pleasures offered by his Brave New World. In more recent dystopic novels characters do have the occasional bit of fun while the world burns. Julian Comstock gives us rollicking adventure alongside its political warnings while heroes of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games learn they can challenge oppressive governments.
(Jeff DeLuzio, Lynna Merrill, James Nicoll, Alex Pantaleev, Peter Watts) Saturday 1:00 PM, Ballroom A
Jo Walton, Author GoH interview - Saturday 3 PM Ballroom BC
I did a pretty bad job of interviewing Scalzi last year so pointers welcome.
What happened to our Utopias?
Finding examples of current SF dystopias is easy. But where are all of the utopias in our SF imagination? It seems that since the 1970s, it is more and more difficult for audiences to find examples of the perfect, harmonized future. Is anybody writing about utopia anymore? Does the lack of utopian fiction and film mean that we, as a society, have lost hope?
(Chandler Davis, Violette Malan, James Nicoll(Moderator), Douglas Smith) Saturday 6:00 PM, Courtyard
And a worse job of being a moderator. Pointers also welcome.
Non-fiction for SF/Fantasy readers
J. B. S. Haldane said, "The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." Can reality provide the same sense of wonder as speculative fiction? Panellists will recommend and discuss works of nonfiction, from ancient history to modern science, that offer the same hit of strangeness and wonder as the best science fiction and fantasy.
(Jonathan Crowe, Shirley Meier, James Nicoll, Jon Singer, Jo Walton) Sunday 11:00 AM, Ballroom BC