Con*Cept...

[fajrdrako]

This is my quick, potted version of my experiences at Con*Cept, the science fiction and fantasy convention in Montreal that I attended over the weekend.

• When I first arrived, I met three people in the registration line-up who had Torchwood badges. I was enthusiastic and covetous. They said they'd been given them by 'a friend'. They didn't say how the friend had got them. Are they on sale in the UK? Do you have to know someone on the filming crew? Aside from verbal comments and a good entry in the Masquerade, there was not much Doctor Who material. One dealer was selling signed photographs of some of the early Doctors and Companions, but he had nothing about the new series.
  
  Another dealer was selling pins, including a Dalek pin and a K-9 pin. I told myself I just wasn't interested - why would I want to walk around in Dalek jewellry? And K-9, well, he may be cute but he isn't pretty. So... no.
  
  Then I found I kept thinking about the pins. As if I wanted them. And realized I'd regret it if I didn't get one, so I bought a Dalek pin, and wore it with satisfaction.



• I missed the main guest of honour speeches by Steve Bacic and Robert Charles Wilson. My impression with the other panels and things that I did attend was that the con needed more speakers and more staff. This made me resolve to volunteer to do panels next year; if only to expand the number. I didn't hear any of the authors' readings either - I would have liked to, since I was unfamiliar with the work of everyone who had readings. I enjoy discovering new authors by hearing them read - or, conversely, realizing I don't really want to read those novels after all.



• In lieu of the guests of honour, I went to a session about John M. Ford, in which other authors read from his works. Yves Menard read my favourite, Winter Solstice, Camelot Station

  ...The train may stop, but the line goes on.
  The train may stop
  but the line goes on.

  Someone else read from Scrabble with God ("speak not to me of pasta marinara") and they, with Jo Walton, read from his series of odes about science fiction cliches. Good lines abounded:
  
  - it's wiser than a herd of ancient Greeks (from The Alien)
  - what perfect bliss,/if things had only been other than this (from the piece about alternate histories)
  - the author sits and thinks on kings he's killed
  - This is what magic is - making people see what you want them to see... This is what magic is, visions sometimes too clear to be borne... This is what magic is, showing things as they might actually be.
  - lovely word, pageantry, wonder what it means
  - the casual epiphany of youth
  - true wonder will radiate
  
  This last, in my opinion, sums up most of his work.



• I did go to the Fan Guest of Honour speech by Larry Stewart, because he's a friend, and he is entertaining. He has always called himself The Doctor, and the name has a whole new meaning for me now. He did some Dalek impressions - the best was the Dalek who talked like a Valley Girl. He also did Jean Chretien as a weatherman. A good part of his talk was reminiscences of being in a play at the Ottawa Little Theatre, which was back in the dawn of time when I didn't actually know him. He was in our production of The Little Foxes, directed by Peter Cochrane, which I remember well. After closing night he beat up the umbrella stand that had given him trouble through the whole production. I've always wondered why our umbrella stand was in such bad shape.
  
  Larry's best quote: "Alcohol doesn't just clear the head, it erases the tapes."



• I went to a late-night panel on Saturday on the topic of Aliens and Sex, done by Lance Sibley and Jo Walton, both of whom seemed to wonder what they were doing there. It turned out to be very interesting, since the audience was mostly a trio from Ottawa - me, Tasia, and Cenk - all with interesting insights. What I found interesting was that these people, being SF readers and writers, see sex as a sociological phenomenon, or a biological one, rather than either personal interaction (between two characters, as in romance writing) or part of a good hot story whose aim is to be sexy, not an intellectual exercise in creating unusual aliens. I confess, my first thought of 'sex with an alien' was to think of Rose with the Doctor. My second thought: Lex with Clark.



• My favourite entry in the Masquerade was the Doctor Who entry, in which a very attractive young woman came out dressed like Ten in pinstripe three-piece suit, tan trench coat, and untucked shirt. She was the Doctor transformed into Rose's body, and Rose? She was a large inflated Dalek. Other Masquerade entires: Cardcapture Sakura, two Jedi warriors duelling (isn't that unfashionable yet?), Darwin Mak as Dick Cheney bird-hunting on Brokeback Mountain (I saw that one at Ad Astra). The best single entry was a warrior from the show Andromeda.



• I went to a panel on plotting. Panelists were Robert Charles Wilson, Meryl Heavens, Violette Malan, Gordon Morrow and Jo Walton. Articulate, interesting people, each with their own views of plotting. All of them approached it in terms of character and action. I eventually asked about what they thought the role of structure was, since I always feel that structure is important - and I got an interesting series of answers. They talked about how novels and short stories are different dialects or languages. I liked Violette Malan's comment that the questions to ask are: "Whose story is it? Where is the story?" Robert Charles Wilson said, "There's a terrible tendency to be nice to your characters. You have to fight it all the way." Jo Walton quoted Neil Gaiman: "Plot is what is there to keep everything from happening all at once." Wilson also said: "Write in the moment and keep the vision. Learn to play within the work."
  
  Jo Walton: "Plot is the one thing that shouldn't be ambiguous."
  
  Robert Charles Wilson: "If you take your good reviews seriously, you have to take your bad reviews seriously."




• I came home with a great list of recommended books. maaseru asked me if there was talk about Naomi Novik - nope, I didn't hear her mentioned the whole weekend by anyone.



• As is usual with conventions, it was great to be able to hang out with friends for a whole weekend, and see some friends I haven't seen in years, and to see others I haven't seen in months. It was Harry's birthday on Saturday, and we celebrated with a feast of chicken and ribs from the Bar B Barn, in Pat and Sandi's hotel room.

Comments

[jhayman.livejournal.com]

I wish Con*Cept wasn't always so close to OVFF. I'd like to go sometime. Sounds like a great time was had by many.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes - I'm always wishing the same thing, too, since I'd like to be able to go to OVFF. As far as I could tell there was no filking at Con*Cept, which was a pity - I'd love to see more programming there, but I suppose most of the filkers were going to OVFF and weren't at Con*Cept.

I wish I could go to all the cons...!

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I wish I could have gone ... but it was just not possible, for lots of reasons.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It was fun! I hope they hold it again next year.

[filkferengi]

Thanks for the report; I'm glad you had such a big time!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was great!

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

I just run accross the following quote (as somebody totally out of the Doctor Who experience) and I thought, if you hadn't seen/heard it, you may like it...
"Real Daleks don't climbs stairs. They level the building."

[(Anonymous)]

Hee - that's wonderful! No, I hadn't heard it before.