So a few weeks ago, I was contacted by some people who are organizing a fantasy conference up at the University of Minnesota. They had just read my book and were wondering if I’d be interested in being a guest.
They were very flattering and said something along the lines of, “We’re just getting started, so we can’t pay you or anything, but if you check out our home page, you can see that if you come, you’ll be getting not-paid with the best.”
So I hopped over to their webpage, and what do I see? Neil Gaiman and Jack Zipes.
Zipes is one of the few scholars whose name I happen to know off the top of my head, and perhaps the only one whose name doesn’t fill me with the urge to curse wildly and wreck up the place. You see, he’s a folklorist. A faerie-tale theorist. I actually enjoyed reading his stuff when I was in grad school. The man is brilliant.
And Gaiman…. Well… if you need me to explain who Neil Gaiman is, then first I’d have to find out how you’ve managed to get internet access while living under that heavy, heavy rock.
Needless to say, I got back to the lovely ladies who were organizing the conference and told them that I’d love nothing better than to show up free of charge. That, in fact, I would be happy to do just about anything in order to hang around breathing the same air as those two.
Fast forward to today when I was checking the date for the conference so I could put it up on my tour schedule, when I saw that they had updated the home page.
Not only am I mentioned in the same paragraph as Gaiman and Zipes, but did you see what was down toward the bottom?
Fantasy Matters is pleased to announce that Patrick Rothfuss will be a featured conference reader! The submission deadline for all papers, panels, and author submissions has been extended to June 15, 2007 to accommodate all participants, but in particular those interested in the fantasy themes and topics raised in Patrick’s work.
Apparently, I have themes. And topics.
Damn. I’m all tingly. I need to go walk this off.
Later,
pat
*Addendum*
For those of you in southern Wisconsin, I’m going to be attending Wiscon this weekend in Madison. I’ll be doing a reading, a signing, and talking on some panels. If you want more details, feel free to check out their homepage.
Wiscon: Part I
I’ve been back from Wiscon for two days, and I’m finally caught up on my sleep and my e-mail.
For those of you who don’t know, Wiscon is a bit of a rarity. It’s a feminist Sci-fi convention.
What does that mean? Several things…
The paneling is slightly different:
When I went to Norwescon, they had a panel titled: “Where Have All the Great Monster Movies Gone?” Wiscon had a panel titled: “The Role of Women and Ethnic Minorities in Stargate.”
There is a lean toward issues of race, class and gender at Wiscon, but it’s just a lean. It’s not the only thing that happens there. Wiscon still has panels on writing good high fantasy, the science of dark matter, and artificial intelligence. The difference is that at Wiscon the AI panel will be more likely to discuss the gender of the AI, and what that implies about society.
The people that attend are slightly different:
At Wiscon you have less of the extreme freaky fans with borderline social dysfunction. This is nice.
However, there is a corresponding rise of Wiscon attendees with graduate degrees. Which, in a way, means they just have a different flavor of social dysfunction.
In practical terms this means that at Wiscon you’ll have fewer people standing too close to you, interrupting you when you speak, or following you around explaining why Squire of Gothosis personally, very important to them. The trade off is that people at Wiscon are more likely to use words like, “hermeneutic,” and “appropriation” and “trope.”
I score this as a point for Wiscon, as I kinda like the word trope.
Trope.
The activities are slightly different:
There is less filking and yiffing, more discoursing and unpacking of social constructs.
Simply said, at Wiscon, there’s less geeking, and more speaking.
The amount of drinking and hobnobbing at the parties are roughly equal.
You’ll see fewer people in costume at Wiscon. In fact, it wasn’t until the very last day that I saw my requisite catgirl. Costumes are still there, but they tend to be more reserved, or designed along challenging gender rolls. Which is a fancy way of saying that there’s a fair amount of cross-dressing. Though honestly, I saw a fair share of that at Norwescon too.
I’m not saying that I like one scene more than the other. I’m just pointing out the differences. Personally, I just like being around people who are doing what makes them happiest. If you’re a woman who wants to dress up like a Klingon, fine. If you’re a guy who wants to wear a red sequined evening dress, also fine. You want to do both, it’s all cool with me, baby. Get down with your freaky self.
There, now we’re all on the same page about Wiscon. Next post I’ll give y’all the list of surrealness that happened while I was down there….
Stay tuned,
pat