Anticipating Anticipation
In two weeks I’ll be heading off to Montréal for Anticipation, the 67th World Science Fiction Convention (aka WorldCon, aka the biggest SF event of the year) to represent Moxyland and to attend the official launch of Angry Robot Books.
I’ve also signed up for all kinds of intriguing panels with all kinds of intimidatingly brilliant people, including MIT-professors, Hugo-award-winning writers and, worse, Hugo-award winning MIT professors.
There’s also a masqued ball, live battleship games inspired by the Japanese and compelling debates and lectures on everything from French graphic novels to Philip K Dick, genocide in SF, toilet tech, feminism in comics, the ethics of Dollhouse and cosplay workshops, as well as readings from the likes of guest-of-honour Neil Gaiman and Cory Doctorow, not forgetting the Hugo Awards ceremony.
It’s going to be insanely fun and I’m going to be hard-pressed to find time to take in everything I’m interested in. Can’t wait!
If you’re interested, the full (7.2MB) programme, just released, is available for download here. And here’s a list of the panels and events I’ve been lassooed into:
- Thu 6 August 15:30 – No More Soldiers
Participants: Joe Haldeman, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Paul Chafe, Lauren Beukes
With robot and remotely piloted planes now routine can it be long before human soldiers leave other parts of the front line. What benefits and problems will this lead to? Is this vision vulnerable to the old-fashioned guerrilla with a gun.
- Friday 7th August 11:00 – Signing
Me and a pen and a Moxy for company.
- Saturday 8th August 4pm – First Contact: Exploring the Monster Within
Participants: Anne Harris, Dan Wells, Sean McMullen, Lauren Beukes
Some Days I Feel Like the Creature From the Black Lagoon: The appeal of identifying with the monster (or alien∑ or ?).
Teen programming: An exploration into alienation… societal and personal
- Saturday 8th August 5pm – First Contact: Scripting your encounter (Screenwriting Part 2)
Participants: James Strauss, Jennifer Williams, Lucien Soulban, Lauren Beukes
Teen programming: Workshop with teens to write a script, using our First Contact theme, or one of your choice. (You can present script as a skit or as reading on Monday! )
- Sunday 9th August 2pm – Reading
Tag-team reading with Kaaron Warren, author of the incredibly disturbing horror, Slights, the other Angry Robot launch title.
- Sunday 9th August 7pm – Plotting Austerity
Participants: Cara C. Sloat, Jack William Bell, James D. Macdonald, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Emily Wagner, Lauren Beukes
Most of us have grown up in a world of abundance (if only for others): what are the challenges in envisaging a truly
austere world?
- Mon 10th August 12:30 – How Common is Our So-Called Common Language?
Participants: Laurie Mann, Sparks, Vincent Docherty, Lauren Beukes
The “Harry Potter” series caused a bit of confusion for some Yanks with boys wearing jumpers and everyone wearing trainers. Why do the British and Americans speak different varieties of English? What about Canadians and Australians? An English-to-English “dictionary” will be provided a light-hearted look at some of the differences to be found.
