Balticon, Day 3 – May 29th, 2011
First panel was 9:00 AM. So, that meant getting up early enough to get the brain in gear by 9.
Sun, 9:00 AM, Salon B, Writers We Don’t Understand
Moderator: Gayle Surrette. Panelists: J-F Bibeau, Michael Swanwick
Charlie Stross loads his stories with so much IT jargon it makes the head spin. A PhD in Physics is necessary to get full enjoyment out of a Greg Egan novel. China Miéville is best read with an open dictionary handy. Others create whole new slang vocabularies for the societies they create. Are these writers doing this on purpose? Are they that much smarter than the rest of us, or are we getting a year of painstaking research downloaded into us in a compressed format? Is there a good stylistic reason to confuse your readers?
Great panel. Areas covered were that sometimes you need to read a book during the right window in your life. That sometimes you just need to be in the right place and time to read some books. Other times you need to put the book away and try again at another time when maybe things will work to make you and the book click. Then there are writers whose books you need to work to understand and the work is well rewarded.
Then it was time to get some food and later sit at the Capclave table. My next panel was at 1:00 PM where I was to be a panelist. Hyperion and I made plans to go out after with a friend.
1:00 PM – Salon B – How To Read For Pleasure
Panelists: ??, Elizabeth Moon, Gayle Surrette (M), Paolo Bacigalupi, and Charles Gannon.
This isn’t about being a “better reader” but about how to really enjoy what you’re reading more!
Well, I missed the name of the gentleman just to the left of Elizabeth Moon but he added some very cogent comments as did all the panelists. I took on being the moderator as the moderator on the schedule wasn’t there. We managed to have quite an interesting discussion. Many of the same issues came up that we’d talked about in the 9:00 AM panel. How sometimes you need to just put a book away and try again later. Sometimes, you just have to give yourself permission to stop reading and give up. If reading a book isn’t fun — put it away. If you feel you must read it, try again later.
We talked about books we enjoyed and good places to read. The writers talked about how they read the genre differently — more critically and so read other genres for pleasure. That we understand book better the more we read.
Later we hung out with friends, sat at the Capclave table and called it an early night. Can’t believe how tired I feel.