badgerbag | May. 25th, 2008

May. 25th, 2008

i just had a super awesome fabulous night after resting and a lot of Celebrex and tylenol, at the girlwonder party, talking w JoSelle, and Noni, and Debbie, and Annaleen, and lavendertook, and khealy, and betty, and Julian and Susan and all the awesome other ppl from the slash 201 panel which filled me with fantastic energy, and then hanging out at the bar with ktempst and ladyjax and naamen and everyone else. I played with the video camera some more. I didn't drink any booze tonight because of wondering if having all those C-52s was maybe not a great idea last night.

Man it is no fair every time I would turn off the little camera Naamen would start flipping out and saying something outrageous about alien dick.

There was some detailed conversation about Derek Bell's "Space Traders" (it is in Dark Matter) and its sequel "Aliens in a land called home" and how there is a Space Traders movie which was only on VHS but sometimes turns up on Amazon, used.

Susan Wright story, aliens come and will cure everything, the government just has to sell people to them and it ends up being for horrible torture and if that was it, that would suck, but in the sequel to that one she (main char) fights in revolution against aliens and the government.

Several people told interesting stories with the theme of, a fucked up thing happening and then a person calling the fucker-upper on it and them coming back with "shut up you fat bitch". The use of "fat bitch" to end discussion like it is the ultimate trump that means you don't get to say anything or have any boundaries!

What to do in the WTF moment (ktempest talkinga bout this) when you are offended against or it isn't you but you know it is incredibly offensive to someone, what to do? How to act? What to say?

Me: *vague theory about how now we have increasing trust that we get to respond later, time delay, and in public call it out and now wiscon has that expectation now*

ladyjax: hollaback moments. hollaback nyc site.

ktempest: i whip out my camera and they go away (on street harassment)

Hmmmmm! That's a thought!

ldyjax talking about running a con (what con, i have never been?) and we talked about femslash & slash & yaoicon & naamen told us about the yaoicon auction & charliegrrl also did. i had trouble articulating my discomfort there. something about sex work, and context, and race, and especially, thinking of my son and just having my brain fry. Will try to articulate later. ladyjax said it well though about deciding to do a thing in a feminist context where you are pretty sure it is and will stay there, vs. not.

(a couple more videos coming in a minute, need to switch connections)

(I am NOT drunk in this video, just really tired, it's 1am or so, 3rd night in a row staying up late.)

What I learned at WisCon

I swear to god every time I'd think the naamen had wound down suddenly he was bubbling with the goddamned muppet heads or vampires and werewolves looking for an apartment until I was hysterical with laughter.

The sound of me falling over into bed!

8:30am panel went okay! I had a nice time on it and felt I didn't disgrace myself (which sad to say DOES HAPPEN). OH.... 1 million page book series with complicated politics, talk about it, in front of its author! With super duper smart fabulous Joan Haran whose criticism is rly good! LIkely in front of oursin and Margaret McB. as well! HHAHAHAA NO SWEAT! No seriously, I made my points, didn't say anything dumbassy, didn't talk for the whole panel and hijack it, didnt' run out of thngs to say either, and took good notes. So I was super happy. Joan said some things that made me think a lot and at lunch she explained further about Kristeva and "abjectification" which made a ton of sense. Timmi is SMRT about theory. I read it sometimes but it goes right out of my head again. I pointed out to Joan the part about The Yellow Wallpaper. I had totally thoguht Joan would be up on all of it and I would be fumbling for names but instead i was the only one who remembered who Hazel and Anne were or whatever. I long to talk further with Margaret M!

I felt like I had hit the zone and said super smart things - sometiems it comes together that way and I get very coherent. Prep time, thinking, plus caffeine, adrenaline, and luck of the draw.

Was even graceful about going Hell No dont Go There to Nancy (re "barbarism" "primitive" "civilization" and evolutionary model of thinking) though it did not have any instant Effect at least it was said. Had eye telepathy with Joan over it.

Forgot to actually mention Marx. That's fine because then I'd really be out of my depth.

The Internet Drama panel was super fabulous! I transcribed it too, holy fuck!

Lunch w charliegrrl, Moomin, joan h, lauren L., therem. then coffee. i was too tired to even really push myself at that point. massive sudden headache too.

I agree with Sue Lange we should do the Marq'ssan panel again next year. More people will have read it. And we will have had more time to think about Stretto and about the series as a whole.

This article by Emily on blogging is upsetting to read,

The will to blog is a complicated thing, somewhere between inspiration and compulsion. It can feel almost like a biological impulse. You see something, or an idea occurs to you, and you have to share it with the Internet as soon as possible. What I didn’t realize was that those ideas and that urgency — and the sense of self-importance that made me think anyone would be interested in hearing what went on in my head — could just disappear.

Oh noes jeremy lassen got his feelings hurt by comment about "boys own club" in long thread. If only people would use the correct tone and not be so angry.

uhhhhh

must not giggle

is srious

uh oh i am giggling

Okay look. a publisher uses the author's name on the cover to promote the book sales. But the author's name on the book cover also promotes the author in their career.

As a publisher you might (thought I question it) sell more books by putting the 10 most best selling dudes on the cover. But you are shooting yourself in the foot, long term, by not treating your authors right, not promoting them in their careers, not developing them long term.

It is not a new idea that privilege works so that the already successful get promoted even more. If you as publishers keep trying to make a few rock stars you are going to lose out. The careers of the many, over the careers of the few. You book publishers are scrambling. You need the "long tail" (though i don't accept that women buying sf are, need be, or will be, a minority of book buyers.)

Totally don't come to Wiscon to get told that shouldn't we take it into consideration how cool someone is and the things they have done for "us" and criticize them a bit more nicely so as not to hurt their feelings or to alienate observers to the conversation? (Including Eclipse thing... and Jonathan Tweet of all things)

Growled and said, Actually Not and I completely and strongly disagree. Number one, I don't have to go research the background and history of whether a person ever did something cool or not before I criticize the thing they just did. Number two, there is not enough placating in the WORLD to satisfy the demand that women placate and be nice. You can't be nice enough about it; no matter how nice you be, you are being mean and shrill and alienating the people who matter. I am thinking of the OTHER observers to the conversation, the ones who are angry and alienated already and who feel relief at what gets expressed. Plus, what I think of is the damage it does to us, as we soft ball and placate and couch everything so carefully. I mean what I feel like I just watched was a super diplomatic and kind yet firm expression of disagreement, that will have zero effect on that one dude other than making him despair of trying (as he seemed to be saying). And what the kind women felt as they walked away from that, was a whole boatload of anger and dismay. How many times have we seen that?

Then changed subject because could not stand to be having this sort of conversation - SWORE before con not to have this sort of conversation - have NO patience for it -

J went Oh whoops did I just fuck up and I went well yeah kinda but, oh well, I know you are nice and mean well by it - no matter -

I am bugged thinking wtf with Y.W. standing up and going Oh well i appreciate what you are saying but just do whatever you have to do to sell a lot of copies of the book. How sad was that? OKAY ... how about slap some boobies on the cover and call it a day then?

Why did I even go to this panel...

Went to book room instead! I found the coolest thing for Quilter!!! OMG! and got a lot of very delicious looking books. I need some cash so I can get stuff from tachyon. I want The Line Between (Peter Beagle), Fate of Mice (Susan Palwick), Catalyst (Nina Kiriki Hoffman) and if I am super bad I might get a couple more.

Bought:

Slave Trade, Susan Wagner
Bluesong, Sydney Van Scyoc
Amberlight, Sylvia Kelso
Cosmonaut Keep, Ken Macleod
Crossfire (hardback), Nancy Kress

told comics guy right at the corner for the 3rd year in a row to get his porn comic books up and away from the kids books and other comic books. For the 3rd year in a row he said he mostly sells adult comic books and to adults. YEAH... GUESS WHY. I was in no mood. Last year I bought some comic books like Go Girl, PS 238, and nice hardback books, Mouse Guard and others, from him. This year I said, Oh well then, I've mentioned it every year, and if you won't listen, I won't buy from you.

Meanwhile! More cheerfully I hope! Mars PHoenix about to either land or burn up! It's very exciting! I am in bed with a massive headache listening to NASA dorks in headsets, in 2 different windows, talk about parachute deployment. Oh!!!!! Good luck little Phoenix!

Holy crap that was soooo exciting! I am so happy! MARS BABY MARS!

I really loved watching all the dorky NASA people in headsets and the countdowns and the data page and being all excited about it!

7 minutes of WOOT

http://www.dmuller.net/phoenix/ert.php

The pounding headache not going away, also food sounds disgusting and I feel like I have crossed some line of not being able to Carry On And Ignore It. Possibly I have the Illness? It's not just that I'm tired and cranky...

Ugh!

I really don't want to barf!

I am going to close my eyes for a while and will miss the dessert banquet and have 3 tickets to spare for it - find Rook if you want them.

Please dont anyone let me miss the Guest of Honor speeches, though. I really want to hear them and to be there even if I am fainting with illness.

I absolutely refuse to barf!