Conversation 2023: Eastercon day 3

 This morning I remembered to take the traditional "picture from a hotel window".

not a great view; not great weather

The first panel today was on Overshoots and Other Anthropocene Narratives.  This was a discussion of a literary style proposed to cope with novels set in the Anthropocene: that they should start in the past, move into the present, then move into a future where its differences are a necessary consequence of the present.

Next was an interview with Guest of Honour Adrian Tchaikovsky.  He had written about 10 novels before his first publication success.  He started in fantasy, with his Apt series, but the SF novel Children of Time is SF, and he's not sure why it was so successful. [Um, that's because it's brilliant!]  He world builds first, and plots rigorously, except for the finale, which emerges as a consequence of the rest of the plot (so he didn't know how Children of Time would end up).  Gaming skills help world building, and SFF is all about world building

The BSFA lecture this year was about Classical References in Dracula.  I learned a lot of fascinating things about classical references in Dracula!

Then we went to a panel on Non-European Middle Ages.  Not only is there no agreed definition of when the Middle Ages were (roughly the fall of the Western Roman Empire [376-476CE-ish] to Columbus [1451-1506CE] / Copernicus [1473-1543CE] / Gutenberg [c1400-1468CE] ), the rest of the world does not have any such cognate period.  In particular, during this period, the Near East thought that Europe was stupid, rude, and didn't wash.

The panel on Alien Ecology started off by reviewing their favourite terrestrial ecologies: sulphur based deep sea vents, trees communicating via fungi, the interior of ant nests that provide niches for multiple species, and the importance of elephants.  There was also discussion of whether we would even recognise alien life, and if we would ever know enough to know if we were damaging an alien ecology.

Next we went to a panel discussing Adaptable Arthur, why the Arthur legends are such a rich resource.  There is zero historical evidence for Arthur: everyone has made up stories, added characters, and changed the plots, so there is no canon, and therefore no appropriation.  One important distinction: one can write Arthur, or one can write Arthurian (with no Arthur present).

And so to bed.