Before heading up to Montreal to attend this WorldCon conference, I tried to read everything I could to find out what this whole thing is all about. I knew the basics: what kind of panels there would be and which authors would be attending. But really I had no idea what I was getting myself into…
What I had prepared myself for was a conference hall in the middle of Montreal to be filled with other nerdy Science Fiction and Fantasy fans, and what I hadn’t prepared myself for was realizing that there is a whole world of people and ideas and rituals that heretofore had not existed for me! Of course I’ve mentioned a few of my highlights in posts before, but in the past couple days I have attended panels on a broad range of subjects ranging from fairy tales in comic books, to relativism and the superhero, and from tips on publishing, to writing metered poetry…all of which have been wildly fascinating!
And that doesn’t even touch on the people I’ve met…talk about both an amazing and a humbling experience. While I’m certainly a fan of science fiction and fantasy literature, talking with the people I’ve met at this conference I feel a little bit like a freshwater fish that has been thrown into a salt water tank…I’m just not as adequately adapted for the environment as they are. That being said, I have definitely read a fair amount of SciFi and Fantasy literature, but certainly not to the extent that the people here have, and I have been learning so much from everyone around me (my To Do reading list as grown somewhat exponentially in the last few days!) But humbling is only from my perspective, because everyone that I’ve met has been so incredibly wonderful and they have introduced me to countless other incredibly wonderful people…and I now have a number of new incredibly wonderful friends.
All that being said, I still have the rest of the day to attend more talks, and most of tomorrow…so here are a few fun pictures for you all!
Panel discussion on the “new media” (from left to right): Melissa Auf der Mar (formerly bassist from the rock band Hole), Neil Gaiman (writer), Ellen Kushner (fantasy writer), Tobias Buckell (sci-fi writer), Steve Boyett (writer, DJ), Cory Doctorow (writer)
Panel about “fandom” with my new friend Tom Galloway (right), and Neil Gaiman.
Revelry: Neil Gaiman’s words of advice in my journal…I have some high expectations to live up to!