![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magentaI promised a report a week ago. By the time we finished unpacking, doing laundry, catching up on mail, etc, the con crud, in the form of a bad cold, struck.
For anyone who is interested, here are my memories of Chicon 7.
We spent most of Monday and Tuesday packing and getting ready, and in my case, being nervous. We had no way to know how late the train would be Wednesday; indeed, the night before, it looked like it might actually be on time. So I had to wake up at 6 am to check, because if it was, we had to leave around 7:10 am or so. I actually woke at 5 am and couldn’t sleep any more. The train was, of course, late. It was running about 1 1/2 hours late when I first checked, and it got a bit later after that. We left here around 8:30 am. We had to wait about an hour at the station, not too bad. The train was running two hours late when we left, but due to delays on the way, got in 3 1/2 hours late, around 7:30 pm. Fortunately, we ran into other fans on the train, and shared a cab to the hotel.
The hotel was huge and very confusing. (It also turned out to be not quite accessible – there were rooms up a few steps from anything else, including a set of bathrooms, and the sheer distances were exhausting to me.) I tried the self service check-in, but was given keys to a room on a high floor nowhere near an elevator. I had to stand in line to change this, and the clerk disappeared into a back room for a least 5 minutes, which both annoyed and confused me. Finally got a pleasant room fairly near the elevator on the 6th floor. Then we went to find a very overdue dinner. The restaurant in the hotel gave me sticker shock, and I didn’t really get enough to eat. Also, being that tired suppresses my appetite. Went back to the room and crashed early.
Thursday was the first full day in Chicago. The first item was the Panel on Anarchism, moderated by Eleanor Arneson, which was very interesting. A few thoughts from it: Are libertarians anarchists? No, Libertarians don’t trust other people, anarchists do. It’s a style of collaboration. Someone gave Quakers as an example of this, and I plan to find a good history of the Quakers and study the idea. No one has the right to tell another what to think or what to believe. Some early examples come from excluding some people from the class of people who have rights, such as women, the landless, blacks. People ran away, i.e. to the Americas, but now people are doing this in place – hill people of SE Asia. Hierarchies can keep personalities under control. Someone mentioned a Joanna Russ essay "Magical mommas and trembling sisters". Ken McLeod’s books were recommended. Martin has been re-reading them, so I have started "The Stone Canal". Anarchism is not "no structure" but the structure emerges from people and situations, rather than being imposed. Not one leader, but situational leaders. (Side note: British fantasy tends to be cynical about monarchy, American tends to romanticize it.) Someone mentioned "Always Coming Home", Iain Banks "Culture" books, starting with "Consider Phlebas". Delany’s "Triton" was used as an example, but I can't remember why. "Red Plenty", semi historical novel about Russia in 1950’s by Spoffant about planning in USSR. In some ways corporations have become our planned economy. I have already gotten and read Eric Frank Russell’s "And Then There Were None", which I enjoyed, even though it is rather flawed, or rather, it doesn’t hold up decades later.
My note-taking at panels went downhill from there, unfortunately. I attended "We’re here, we’re queer...", which was good, and I got a few book titles. The panel on Georges Melies was quite interesting, and I found out that many of the films that survive are on YouTube.
I know I went to other panels, but what stands out for Thursday was the pizza expedition with others who read Making Light, and of course, the trip to the Adler Planetarium. It was great to visit, and especially with a bunch of other fans who value space exploration. The ribbon I received at the planetarium reading "My God, it’s full of stars" will stay on my badge-holder as long as possible.
Friday afternoon, I went to "Occupy Fandom", which was not about overculture politics, but I can’t find my notes on it. Parties in the evening included Cecelia Tan’s Hogwart's Alumni Party. (I know I did more on Friday, but my schedule is scribbled on oddly.)
Saturday at noon, I went to the panel on Democracy, which was great, even though most of the panelists didn’t make it, the one that did recruited other people, including Fragano Legister, who is a professor of political science and very knowledgeable. But I can’t find my notes! Then went to Moral Ambiguity in SF at 1:30 with Nancy Kress, Jay Lake and Charlie Stross. Very interesting. Stross said, "String up deconstructionists, that’s the only language they understand"; I think it was Kress who said she wrote with the Stanislavski method, just put yourself in the character and write. At 3, went to the secret history of SF aka, five old farts BS-ing, which was fun and funny. That night Martin played Munchkin Cthulhu, which he greatly enjoyed, while I went to parties alone for a while. He eventually caught up with me.
Sunday at 10:30 was the panel on the legal system as a plot device, which might have been very good if the moderator hadn’t hijacked the panel and tried to do all the talking. I ran into Tanith there, and we wandered off to the con suite and talked. I went to Jay Lake’s reading at 1 pm, which was excellent; he read "The Cancer Catechism", which is basically a prose poem and heart-breaking and wonderful at the same time. At 1:30 I went to "Guilty Pleasures", which was about bad movies people love, like "Battle Beyond the Stars". I have a whole list of movies to try to find. At 3 I went to a panel on Fandom’s blind spots; I took a lot of notes. This was the panel moderated by a blond trans-woman who was great, and got Isabel Schecter up on the panel because it was all white, and mostly male. Made quite a contrast between Wiscon and Worldcon. We decided to skip the Circlet Press anniversary presentation, because it was probably what I saw in the spring, and we wanted dinner. Martin wanted to go to a panel at 6, so he did, and I sat in the line to get into the Hugo’s. Glad I did, we had excellent seats, and I had interesting conversations and people-watching. The ceremonies really were thrilling – a number of people we voted for won. I was so glad to see Kij Johnson finally win, she is such a good writer. And of course, I was delighted that "Among Others" won. She said someone had told her, you wrote a love letter to fandom, why are you surprised when you got a response? And on to parties and on to bed.
Monday at noon, I got to a panel on self-publishing that had some useful content, especially in light of trying to publish the Prodea cookbook or whatever we call it. After that, it was mostly hanging out here and there. We found a place to go for dinner; Martin played Zar for much of the evening, which he greatly enjoyed. For Martin, it wouldn't be a con without Zar.
I am so glad we stayed over until Tuesday.
We had plenty of time to pack, and hang out with Peer and Simon. We shared a cab to the station with Elise. Train left on time, got delayed on the way, but came in only a few minutes late. And so to home and so to bed.
Since then, we have unpacked, done many loads of laundry, comforted the poor pitiful cat who had to make to with one human part time instead of two humans full time. I thought I'd escape the con crud, but Monday night I started coming down with a cold, and I am still fighting it.
In a sentence - it was fun, there were thrills, but it took so much time, energy and money I don't know if I'll ever do it again. But I am glad I did this time.
For anyone who is interested, here are my memories of Chicon 7.
We spent most of Monday and Tuesday packing and getting ready, and in my case, being nervous. We had no way to know how late the train would be Wednesday; indeed, the night before, it looked like it might actually be on time. So I had to wake up at 6 am to check, because if it was, we had to leave around 7:10 am or so. I actually woke at 5 am and couldn’t sleep any more. The train was, of course, late. It was running about 1 1/2 hours late when I first checked, and it got a bit later after that. We left here around 8:30 am. We had to wait about an hour at the station, not too bad. The train was running two hours late when we left, but due to delays on the way, got in 3 1/2 hours late, around 7:30 pm. Fortunately, we ran into other fans on the train, and shared a cab to the hotel.
The hotel was huge and very confusing. (It also turned out to be not quite accessible – there were rooms up a few steps from anything else, including a set of bathrooms, and the sheer distances were exhausting to me.) I tried the self service check-in, but was given keys to a room on a high floor nowhere near an elevator. I had to stand in line to change this, and the clerk disappeared into a back room for a least 5 minutes, which both annoyed and confused me. Finally got a pleasant room fairly near the elevator on the 6th floor. Then we went to find a very overdue dinner. The restaurant in the hotel gave me sticker shock, and I didn’t really get enough to eat. Also, being that tired suppresses my appetite. Went back to the room and crashed early.
Thursday was the first full day in Chicago. The first item was the Panel on Anarchism, moderated by Eleanor Arneson, which was very interesting. A few thoughts from it: Are libertarians anarchists? No, Libertarians don’t trust other people, anarchists do. It’s a style of collaboration. Someone gave Quakers as an example of this, and I plan to find a good history of the Quakers and study the idea. No one has the right to tell another what to think or what to believe. Some early examples come from excluding some people from the class of people who have rights, such as women, the landless, blacks. People ran away, i.e. to the Americas, but now people are doing this in place – hill people of SE Asia. Hierarchies can keep personalities under control. Someone mentioned a Joanna Russ essay "Magical mommas and trembling sisters". Ken McLeod’s books were recommended. Martin has been re-reading them, so I have started "The Stone Canal". Anarchism is not "no structure" but the structure emerges from people and situations, rather than being imposed. Not one leader, but situational leaders. (Side note: British fantasy tends to be cynical about monarchy, American tends to romanticize it.) Someone mentioned "Always Coming Home", Iain Banks "Culture" books, starting with "Consider Phlebas". Delany’s "Triton" was used as an example, but I can't remember why. "Red Plenty", semi historical novel about Russia in 1950’s by Spoffant about planning in USSR. In some ways corporations have become our planned economy. I have already gotten and read Eric Frank Russell’s "And Then There Were None", which I enjoyed, even though it is rather flawed, or rather, it doesn’t hold up decades later.
My note-taking at panels went downhill from there, unfortunately. I attended "We’re here, we’re queer...", which was good, and I got a few book titles. The panel on Georges Melies was quite interesting, and I found out that many of the films that survive are on YouTube.
I know I went to other panels, but what stands out for Thursday was the pizza expedition with others who read Making Light, and of course, the trip to the Adler Planetarium. It was great to visit, and especially with a bunch of other fans who value space exploration. The ribbon I received at the planetarium reading "My God, it’s full of stars" will stay on my badge-holder as long as possible.
Friday afternoon, I went to "Occupy Fandom", which was not about overculture politics, but I can’t find my notes on it. Parties in the evening included Cecelia Tan’s Hogwart's Alumni Party. (I know I did more on Friday, but my schedule is scribbled on oddly.)
Saturday at noon, I went to the panel on Democracy, which was great, even though most of the panelists didn’t make it, the one that did recruited other people, including Fragano Legister, who is a professor of political science and very knowledgeable. But I can’t find my notes! Then went to Moral Ambiguity in SF at 1:30 with Nancy Kress, Jay Lake and Charlie Stross. Very interesting. Stross said, "String up deconstructionists, that’s the only language they understand"; I think it was Kress who said she wrote with the Stanislavski method, just put yourself in the character and write. At 3, went to the secret history of SF aka, five old farts BS-ing, which was fun and funny. That night Martin played Munchkin Cthulhu, which he greatly enjoyed, while I went to parties alone for a while. He eventually caught up with me.
Sunday at 10:30 was the panel on the legal system as a plot device, which might have been very good if the moderator hadn’t hijacked the panel and tried to do all the talking. I ran into Tanith there, and we wandered off to the con suite and talked. I went to Jay Lake’s reading at 1 pm, which was excellent; he read "The Cancer Catechism", which is basically a prose poem and heart-breaking and wonderful at the same time. At 1:30 I went to "Guilty Pleasures", which was about bad movies people love, like "Battle Beyond the Stars". I have a whole list of movies to try to find. At 3 I went to a panel on Fandom’s blind spots; I took a lot of notes. This was the panel moderated by a blond trans-woman who was great, and got Isabel Schecter up on the panel because it was all white, and mostly male. Made quite a contrast between Wiscon and Worldcon. We decided to skip the Circlet Press anniversary presentation, because it was probably what I saw in the spring, and we wanted dinner. Martin wanted to go to a panel at 6, so he did, and I sat in the line to get into the Hugo’s. Glad I did, we had excellent seats, and I had interesting conversations and people-watching. The ceremonies really were thrilling – a number of people we voted for won. I was so glad to see Kij Johnson finally win, she is such a good writer. And of course, I was delighted that "Among Others" won. She said someone had told her, you wrote a love letter to fandom, why are you surprised when you got a response? And on to parties and on to bed.
Monday at noon, I got to a panel on self-publishing that had some useful content, especially in light of trying to publish the Prodea cookbook or whatever we call it. After that, it was mostly hanging out here and there. We found a place to go for dinner; Martin played Zar for much of the evening, which he greatly enjoyed. For Martin, it wouldn't be a con without Zar.
I am so glad we stayed over until Tuesday.
We had plenty of time to pack, and hang out with Peer and Simon. We shared a cab to the station with Elise. Train left on time, got delayed on the way, but came in only a few minutes late. And so to home and so to bed.
Since then, we have unpacked, done many loads of laundry, comforted the poor pitiful cat who had to make to with one human part time instead of two humans full time. I thought I'd escape the con crud, but Monday night I started coming down with a cold, and I am still fighting it.
In a sentence - it was fun, there were thrills, but it took so much time, energy and money I don't know if I'll ever do it again. But I am glad I did this time.
