Readercon quotes
Jul. 12th, 2005 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stdesjardinsThere are conventions where I feel charming and clever, and conventions where I don't. Readercon was one of the latter. I just didn't find myself with much to say, and socialized less than I'd like.
Still, I had a good time. Readercon is one of the few conventions where not only are the panel topics interesting, but the panelists have quite a bit to say, so the hour flies by and the moderator has to make an effort in the last few minutes to squeeze in a few questions from the audience. I didn't start taking notes until late Saturday, but I did write down a few quotes, starting with the panel on evidence-free theories about science fiction. (Most of these are actually paraphrases, because I can't hold words accurately in my head long enough to write them down.)
"And on the extreme left is Patrick Nielsen Hayden."—Graham Sleight
"Science fiction is essentially an untameable genre, and to the extent it is tamed it loses its power."—Barry Malzberg's theory about what Jonathan Lethem's theory is
"Human interaction is not necessarily responsible for human destiny."—Malzberg again
"The speculative fiction field is much more interested in metacritical issues than we've ever fully understood or identified."—Jonathan Lethem
"We overestimate the extent to which readers engage with science fiction as a form of escapism, and underestimate the extent to which it's used as a way to figure the world out."—Patrick Nielsen Hayden
"Science fiction is good for you and will make you a better person."—Rosemary Kirstein, suggesting that science fiction encourages flexibility of thought
"I speak human as a second language."—Farah Mendlesohn
"We speak written English as a first language."—Patrick Nielsen Hayden, who means it literally
"Science fiction is a literature for rationalists who aspire to be mystics."—Patrick Nielsen Hayden
"If we talk about the genre of science fiction, starting with the first issue of Amazing Stories, the heart was male sexual anxiety."—Barry Malzberg
"Fiction is at one remove from reality, science fiction is doubly removed from reality, therefore it will always be a second-rate, ersatz literature."—Malzberg again, citing and endorsing a statement by John Updike
"Arts are not measured by their mimetic capacity."—Jonathan Lethem, confronting and demolishing a statement by John Updike
"The real difference between a good and a bad book is not technique or (other stuff I didn't catch), but belief."—Farah Mendlesohn
"One of the strengths of the science fiction community is that people never agree in order to be polite."—David Hartwell
"The critic's task and the reader's privilege is not to accept excuses."—John Clute
"If you're stuck at the end, go cosmic, Alfred."—James Michener to Alfred Bester, quoted by Geary Gravel
At the poetry reading, I found myself listening to the sound of the words and repeatedly forgetting to make sense of them, which made the experience far less than it could have been. It was worth going anyway, because it let my claim a front-row seat for the Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition, always the funniest event of the year. It can sometimes be a little difficult to hear all of the entries clearly from farther back, and I'm going to try to make an effort to show up early enough to claim good seats from now on.
Kate Wilhelm was one of the Guests of Honor, and I can recommend her new book, Storyteller, a memoir of the Clarion workshop.
Still, I had a good time. Readercon is one of the few conventions where not only are the panel topics interesting, but the panelists have quite a bit to say, so the hour flies by and the moderator has to make an effort in the last few minutes to squeeze in a few questions from the audience. I didn't start taking notes until late Saturday, but I did write down a few quotes, starting with the panel on evidence-free theories about science fiction. (Most of these are actually paraphrases, because I can't hold words accurately in my head long enough to write them down.)
"And on the extreme left is Patrick Nielsen Hayden."—Graham Sleight
"Science fiction is essentially an untameable genre, and to the extent it is tamed it loses its power."—Barry Malzberg's theory about what Jonathan Lethem's theory is
"Human interaction is not necessarily responsible for human destiny."—Malzberg again
"The speculative fiction field is much more interested in metacritical issues than we've ever fully understood or identified."—Jonathan Lethem
"We overestimate the extent to which readers engage with science fiction as a form of escapism, and underestimate the extent to which it's used as a way to figure the world out."—Patrick Nielsen Hayden
"Science fiction is good for you and will make you a better person."—Rosemary Kirstein, suggesting that science fiction encourages flexibility of thought
"I speak human as a second language."—Farah Mendlesohn
"We speak written English as a first language."—Patrick Nielsen Hayden, who means it literally
"Science fiction is a literature for rationalists who aspire to be mystics."—Patrick Nielsen Hayden
"If we talk about the genre of science fiction, starting with the first issue of Amazing Stories, the heart was male sexual anxiety."—Barry Malzberg
"Fiction is at one remove from reality, science fiction is doubly removed from reality, therefore it will always be a second-rate, ersatz literature."—Malzberg again, citing and endorsing a statement by John Updike
"Arts are not measured by their mimetic capacity."—Jonathan Lethem, confronting and demolishing a statement by John Updike
"The real difference between a good and a bad book is not technique or (other stuff I didn't catch), but belief."—Farah Mendlesohn
"One of the strengths of the science fiction community is that people never agree in order to be polite."—David Hartwell
"The critic's task and the reader's privilege is not to accept excuses."—John Clute
"If you're stuck at the end, go cosmic, Alfred."—James Michener to Alfred Bester, quoted by Geary Gravel
At the poetry reading, I found myself listening to the sound of the words and repeatedly forgetting to make sense of them, which made the experience far less than it could have been. It was worth going anyway, because it let my claim a front-row seat for the Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition, always the funniest event of the year. It can sometimes be a little difficult to hear all of the entries clearly from farther back, and I'm going to try to make an effort to show up early enough to claim good seats from now on.
Kate Wilhelm was one of the Guests of Honor, and I can recommend her new book, Storyteller, a memoir of the Clarion workshop.
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Date: 2005-07-12 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-08 05:09 pm (UTC)