Nasfic, Day Three

[stoutfellow]

The bus schedule is rather different on Saturday; we had to leave a bit earlier, and the dropoff point was near, but not at, the Convention Center. Still, the trip was far better than Thursday's misadventure.

My first panel of the day was "Literary Criticism and SF - Do the same standards apply?". The panelists were a mix of writers, agents, and academics. The discussion centered on several issues: the differing goals of mainstream and genre fiction; the - possibly diminishing - ghettoization of genre fiction in the academy; and the crossover question, in both directions. It was fairly interesting, though there was little in it I hadn't heard before.

After yet another visit to the Dealers' Room, I took a look at a talk on "The Prehistory of the Superhero", tracing the influence of 19th-century monsters like Frankenstein's monster and Dracula and of other sorts of character on the development of the 20th-century "superhero", but I grew bored and left early.

At noon, I attended a panel on "The Fantasy Worlds of Peter S. Beagle". This was quite entertaining. The highlight was a bit by Beagle's agent, who declared that he had discovered three circumstances under which Beagle would write: under the pressure of poverty; under the pressure of a contract; or when he was being driven by his muse. "I don't want him to deal with the first, and I can't do anything about the third, but the second I can arrange." He then went on to announce that quite a few Beagle works would be published in the next year or so, including three new novels. Joyfulness!

I spent the next two hours at a pair of filk concerts, by Tom Smith and by Wild Mercy (again). Both were excellent.

At 4:00, I went to a lecture on ancient Egypt by Lloyd Kropp. I'm of two minds about what I heard. Early on, Kropp discussed some aspects of the Egyptian language and tried to draw cultural conclusions from them. I'm very wary of this sort of thing, at least at the level Kropp was working, so I wasn't happy with that. However, when he turned to Egyptian religion sans linguistic adornment, the lecture became very interesting. He attempted to give a rational explanation of Egyptian syncretism which was at least superficially plausible, and he finished with a "walkthrough" of the Twelve Hours of the Night - the period immediately after death in Egyptian mythology. That last was quite powerful.

filkferengi, mbernardi, and I had dinner at the Ponderosa. That's a pretty good restaurant; each entree includes access to the buffet - soup, salad, and dessert - and the buffet choices were extensive, delicious, and filling.

The Grande Masquerade began at 7:00, and included a number of excellent entries. Most notable were a "Happy Feet" pastiche, a costume from the Dr. Who episode "Blink", and an extravagant Rio-style carnivale.

The last panel of the evening was "Return to the Buffyverse", which mostly concerned itself with the merits and demerits of the "Season 8" comic and the possible onscreen followups. Kind of meh, actually.

And that was the third day.

Comments

[filkferengi]

The Egyptian walkthrough was "powerful." As Roxanne said in Cyrano, And? It's a good theme; elaborate. ["Elaborez, brodez."]

P. S.

[filkferengi]

You forgot to mention the Brussels sprouts. Not that they're my most favorite vegetable, but it's a pithy, substantiating detail on how extensive the buffet was.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

The Twelve Hours involve passage through twelve "chambers", each with its own inhabitants and challenges. Some of the inhabitants are hostile, or at least judgmental; others are compassionate. Passing each challenge, the soul is progressively purified, and after the last it is reborn (although it wasn't clear whether this meant an afterlife or reincarnation; it may have meant both). The rest is detail, and you kind of had to be there.

Re: P. S.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

And now they have been mentioned; I nod, and pass by.

[filkferengi]

Sounds cool! Have you ever read Jane Lindskold's _Buried Pyramid_?

[filkferengi]

It'd make a nifty gaming setting, too.