Nova Atlantis

[ Mood: Hypnotized ]
[ Currently: Listening to \ ]
OK, have to cover the past two days in one post. No wait, two and a half days.

Right, Tuesday I got to the utopias conference nice and early for the morning keynote from Tom Moylan, one of the big names in utopian scholarship. After that, I chaired a panel of three excellent young scholars (I’m going to do a whole post summarizing from my notes for the various presentations, so I’ll talk more about that later), and then after a lunch during which I finally spoke to Kim Stanley Robinson, it was time for my presentation.

Unfortunately, there were some really interesting presentations going on next door–bad luck, that–so attendance was light. I think our panel didn’t have as much appeal because there were only two of us rather than the standard three, and maybe because the authors we were talking about (me: Lovecraft and Octavia Butler; Ellen: Lovecraft, Heinlein, Dick, and Herbert) were kind of old-fashioned, maybe? Well, not Butler–she’s pretty popular. Anyway, their loss.

And it was their loss, because while my presentation went fine, the one after mine, Ellen Greenham’s presentation, was wonderful. Although it was a fully researched and cited academic essay, it was told in the form of a short story, with an almost fairytale style. I enjoyed it thoroughly. And afterward, because there were so few attendees, we just pulled chairs up in a circle and had a discussion, which went very well.

After another panel and Kim Stanley Robinson’s excellent keynote, I headed back to my hotel to change, and then through the cold rain to Flinder’s Street Station, to negotiate the train system. I had a nice conversation on the train with a German couple, here to visit their son. Then after some trouble with the payphones, I got hold of Tim Betz, a friend from the DGML, who picked me up and took me to his house for a game of Trail of Cthulhu with Rob Shankley (another DGMLer) and new acquaintances Chris and John.

I slept in a bit the next day, missing the morning keynote. Several nights of not enough sleep had caught up with me. That and no longer having that presentation hanging over my head. But that was the only time slot that I missed during the whole conference, so I’m proud of that. There were only two panel periods, and between them was a book launch for two books in Tom Moylan’s Rahaline Utopian Studies series, including one by Andrew Milner.

That was when I got to talk with Kim Stanley Robinson about my (probably weird) ideas of the utopian nature of the overlapping points of view he employed in the Mars Trilogy. Amazingly, he did not seem to think I was insane or annoying. I’m still walking on air.

After a final keynote by SF critic extraordinaire John Clute, we had drinks to celebrate the end of the conference, and then a nijikai a couple blocks away. It had been a good, intense three days of learning and exchange, and it was hard to say goodbye. These are some good folks, people who are earnestly concerned about the serious climate shifts that are ahead of us and who want to do something to lessen the huge and terrible changes that we are all going to experience in the coming years.

And now, today: Another late sleep-in, and then out on the town to find me some snakes. I needed more snakes, rubber, plastic, wooden, whatever, for my Nightmare Ball costume. With directions from one of the utopias conference scholars, I managed to find the Reject Shop, and I also came across a magic shop where I bought one larger snake to drape around my neck. I also briefly stopped in the Minotaur, just to remind myself what a proper comics/games/SF bookstore is like. Back down to the Yarra area, where my hotel and WorldCon are, and then into the Melbourne Convention Centre. Registration took awhile because the lines were divided up by alphabet, so naturally the E-J line was the longest because a lot more people’s names start with those letters–doy! Finally got my tag and bag, and then realized I’d left the RevSF Scavenger Hunt fliers in my room! But I attended the first of the academic-stream panels before heading back to my hotel to retrieve the fliers, and then a panel on SF and the environment with KSR, John Clute, and a couple others, with Tom Moylan presiding. I made sure they got fliers afterward. (Stan remembered my name! Can you tell I am hero-struck?)

To round out the day, Zac and Evie Kendall, Monash students and a delightful couple I met at the last utopias conference, took me out to see Scott Pilgrim. Deanna, you’re right. It’s awesome.

Now back in my room, after a couple of conversations with Junko via the mysterious powers of Skype, and it’s time for bed. Tomorrow is the first full day of WorldCon, aka Aussiecon4. I’m looking forward to it.