Again, these notes are not from me (and again, I wish they were). But Leanne Taylor of The Storytelling Dream-Thief blog has done an incredible job of transcribing a handful of panels from WorldCon. The topics range from political structures in science fiction to issues writers might consider taboo in urban fantasy to the struggle of transferring our modern attitudes into medieval or other historical periods. Some great quotes throughout and lots of different perspectives to consider.
Here are a few of my favorites:
From Howard Tayler, author of the Schlock Mercenary webcomic:
You have to believe it yourself, you have to set up rules and follow them and convince them you’re an expert. Sometimes if you hold up the vaguely-explained thing in this hand and the unexplained thing in this hand, once you have the audience believing the unexplained thing, they kind of read through the other one and accept the explanation. It doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a try.
From Catherynne M. Valente, author of The Orphan’s Tales, Palimpsest and more:
Someone suggesting that every book contain a warning that has all the things it contains on the front so you can only ever read the things you want to read, and the whole mood of the audience was asking us if we didn’t feel it was our duty to make our audience feel safe, and all of us were going “No, not really.”
From Kate Elliott, author of The Crossroads Trilogy and much more:
I think it’s impossible to separate a character from their culture, because they’ve grown up in their culture just as I’ve grown up in mine, and they are themselves, within that society, and it’s shaped them, and they exist within it.
For those who haven’t made it to a WorldCon yet (including myself), the next two years are already scheduled. The 2011 WorldCon will be held in Reno, NV on August 17-21, and the 2012 WorldCon will be in Chicago, August 30 – Sept. 3. Perhaps I’ll see some of you there! And thanks again, Leanne, for making these notes available.
