We drove to the Birmingham Metropole for this year's Eastercon, arriving around lunchtime, and dove straight in to going to panels. (Hotel checkin wasn't open until later.)
First was Where does history end and fantasy begin? The discussion was mainly about history, and how things happen, then history is a narrative we use to explain what happened. We get to pick and choose events to narrate, and different people at different times pick different things, while still telling a valid history. Although things can get exaggerated or omitted for political reasons. A few snippets: Wolf Hall is interesting, because it flips who was originally the good guy (More) and the bad guy (Cromwell). Early accounts of Dick Turpin had him as a thug, but the stories gradually softened over time. There are three separate iterations of the story of St Patrick, told at different times for different political purposes.
Next up, The Adaptable Gaiman, on how Neil Gaiman stories adapt to film or TV. Apparently American Gods season 1 is great, then goes downhill. Season one of the Sandman is also great, and the panellists are waiting to see if this continues.
We went to a couple of panels on Beyond Human Intelligence and Conlangs and You (constructed languages), and finished the day with Fearlessly Spineless: Invertebrates in SFFH, where we learned that Western cultures are more afraid of insects and invertebrates than other cultures despite having the fewest poisonous ones, and that there is a type of chordate where members can combine into a group organism (I didn't catch the name of it, unfortunately).
And so to bed.
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