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Nov. 13th, 2019 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretPhilcon was pretty great.
The Jewish part of Philcon was particularly good. A guy I met a few Philcons ago organized big group meals for both Friday night and Shabbos lunch, about fifteen people in his hotel room. Good food and good friends and great geeky conversation filled both meals. And we got a minyan for both Kabbalat Shabbat and Shacharis, and the Shacharis davening had a particularly moving moment when we had a newcomer join us to say Kaddish for the first time for a loved one. I was so pleased that we created a space, at a science fiction convention, that gave someone access to such a valuable ritual.
I was on two panels. First was a panel on AUs that featured a comic book fan, two fanfic fans, and an rpg fan. So, different perspectives on AUs and how they are used, but everyone was receptive to listening and responding to each other. It was sparsely attended but the conversation was satisfying and interesting.
Second was a panel on Jewish SF that filled the room and had a really satisfying conversation. We talked about what, if anything, was in the canon of Jewish SF (IMO, the only truly common ground all Jewish SF fans have is Jack Dann's Wandering Stars... and I suppose, the original canon itself of Tanakh). We talked about representation versus coding, and how to go beyond stereotypes and create characters whose Judaism is an important part of who they are but not the only thing that makes them interesting, and how to go beyond Ashkenormativity. And I made sure to highlight that three of this year's Hugo nominees for Best Novel have significant Jewish themes (Calculating Stars, Record of a Spaceborn Few, and Spinning Silver) and I think that raises the fascinating question of why this moment is impelling that kind of attention to Jewish stories.
That evening I hosted my Fiasco game "Hurricane Squad", inspired by the government's plan to drop an atom bomb into a hurricane to diffuse it. It was the first Fiasco game for all but one player, myself included, and there was some clunkiness as we figured out how to work with the mechanics of what is a 'bad resolution' vs. a 'good resolution', but mostly it was just fun and hilarious and occasionally surprisingly emotionally charged- at the center of the game is the idea of intersecting relationships. I was struck that in Trump's original conception, the atom bomb was supposed to dissipate the storm, but in emergent play it became clear in our version that the government was working to make the storm worse by dropping the bomb in it.
And there was cozy time with good friends, and a public reading of several Chuck Tingle stories, and boardgaming and storytelling and singing and music and many things I love. Though I said afterward to a friend that I got to see all the friends I wanted to see, but I didn't get to spend enough time with any of them, and that seemed to be true for a lot of us.
Also, there's some backstory that I don't want to get into and that I'm not thrilled about, but overall the reception of fanfic at the con this year was so much less of an issue than it has been. I openly talked about fic alongside pros on both my panels, and it was just fine.
The Jewish part of Philcon was particularly good. A guy I met a few Philcons ago organized big group meals for both Friday night and Shabbos lunch, about fifteen people in his hotel room. Good food and good friends and great geeky conversation filled both meals. And we got a minyan for both Kabbalat Shabbat and Shacharis, and the Shacharis davening had a particularly moving moment when we had a newcomer join us to say Kaddish for the first time for a loved one. I was so pleased that we created a space, at a science fiction convention, that gave someone access to such a valuable ritual.
I was on two panels. First was a panel on AUs that featured a comic book fan, two fanfic fans, and an rpg fan. So, different perspectives on AUs and how they are used, but everyone was receptive to listening and responding to each other. It was sparsely attended but the conversation was satisfying and interesting.
Second was a panel on Jewish SF that filled the room and had a really satisfying conversation. We talked about what, if anything, was in the canon of Jewish SF (IMO, the only truly common ground all Jewish SF fans have is Jack Dann's Wandering Stars... and I suppose, the original canon itself of Tanakh). We talked about representation versus coding, and how to go beyond stereotypes and create characters whose Judaism is an important part of who they are but not the only thing that makes them interesting, and how to go beyond Ashkenormativity. And I made sure to highlight that three of this year's Hugo nominees for Best Novel have significant Jewish themes (Calculating Stars, Record of a Spaceborn Few, and Spinning Silver) and I think that raises the fascinating question of why this moment is impelling that kind of attention to Jewish stories.
That evening I hosted my Fiasco game "Hurricane Squad", inspired by the government's plan to drop an atom bomb into a hurricane to diffuse it. It was the first Fiasco game for all but one player, myself included, and there was some clunkiness as we figured out how to work with the mechanics of what is a 'bad resolution' vs. a 'good resolution', but mostly it was just fun and hilarious and occasionally surprisingly emotionally charged- at the center of the game is the idea of intersecting relationships. I was struck that in Trump's original conception, the atom bomb was supposed to dissipate the storm, but in emergent play it became clear in our version that the government was working to make the storm worse by dropping the bomb in it.
And there was cozy time with good friends, and a public reading of several Chuck Tingle stories, and boardgaming and storytelling and singing and music and many things I love. Though I said afterward to a friend that I got to see all the friends I wanted to see, but I didn't get to spend enough time with any of them, and that seemed to be true for a lot of us.
Also, there's some backstory that I don't want to get into and that I'm not thrilled about, but overall the reception of fanfic at the con this year was so much less of an issue than it has been. I openly talked about fic alongside pros on both my panels, and it was just fine.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-11-13 04:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-11-13 04:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-11-13 08:06 pm (UTC)