Terminus, Entry Nine. Summaries: Saturday.

[valis2]

I hope that both of you who are reading these are enjoying them. lol.

Got up early again, and left the roomies to sleep the sleep of the just.

Wandered around and checked out the rest of the con, such as the Room of Requirement. I have to say, this was a pretty freaky hotel. Definitely one of those "add-on" hotels, where they built it a hundred years ago and just kept adding wings and pools. And Starbucks.

The hotel seemed less than happy to have us. In fact, I've heard a few horror stories from other congoers that made me very sad indeed. It took us a while to get a fridge that had been confirmed during the original booking, and that was a pain. There were worse stories.

My two problems with the hotel:

1) We were not the only game in town, so to speak. There were multiple conferences going on at the same time; the gospel singers and some other con at first, and then later some sort of teachers' thing, and so on. It's an enormous hotel. Do we need such a large hotel? I really wonder about that. If we were the only con there, we might have had a little more respect from the staff and management of the hotel. I received quality service (except the fridge issue), but I know others did not, and I have a very strong feeling that they thought of us as freaks.

2) SPRAWLING LAYOUTS CAN WE STOP THIS PLEASE. I would absolutely love to have a smaller hotel with rooms just for us, centrally located, with lobbies, places to hang out, etc. I really would like a place where it's easy to get to the con stuff, and it's all relatively together. This con? Half the programming was on the 3rd floor, half on the eighth. Yes, you read that correctly. And the eighth floor was a maze. You had to walk around a bunch of corridors, and the rooms were all small with one main hallway and no seating. We were constantly shushed and it felt as roomy as a tin of sardines. I would love it if we could have really large areas to hang out, places to have meetups, and a free wireless thingy for my wireless thingy friends. And while we're at it I want to be a sparkling pony animagus.

Off I went to dacro's Dialogue Workshop, which was terrific!

She first explained that she comes from a sign language background. It was fascinating to ponder such questions as the textual meaning of the words, the meaning of the words underneath (subtext), and body language and emotion and tone, and how to translate that into visual characters. We can say I love you in many ways--ironic, happy, angry, sad. The words themselves are the same, but the emotions are different, and it takes skill to translate that into signing. She also comes from a music background.

I have to say that this was my favorite presentation. It was really fascinating! She discussed different "registers" of voice.

First register: Nearly unchangeable. School songs, rituals, mottoes, traditions.

Formal register: Speeches, one-way conversations, lectures, opening ceremonies, monologues by Voldemort. Percy, Lucius, and Dumbledore are great examples of formal register.

Consultative register: A less formal way of interacting. McG is the higher end of this, Arthur is more at the lower end. It's a conversational register.

Informal register: Friends and family. Hagrid, Rosmerta, other students.

Intimate register: Words are almost unnecessary. Fred & George, for example. Touch can be a huge conveyor of emotion. A brush of the fingers as Draco walks past Harry--"I see you, but don't want to acknowledge this to others."

marginaliana and I giggled about talking in the intimate register for the rest of the con. Though, seriously, she can raise an eyebrow and I know exactly what she means. lol!

Dacro also talked about creating biographies for each character. She mentioned that some of the really minor characters in canon are nearly like original characters--blank slates for us to embellish. Try to develop unique voices for each character. Does the register match the personality? Inanimate objects even speak in Harry Potter, and should have their own voice.

Word choices--do they match the character's age and status? Vocabulary in canon--watch out for Americanisms, and don't be afraid to use the books to help sharpen the canon characters' voices.

Multiple betas can help you see your characters from different perspectives.

I had lunch with Mariginaliana and drusillas_rain. Sushi from a small takeout place on Michigan Ave. It was quite wonderful! I enjoyed it immensely. We talked a lot about different cons and sci-fi cons and how celebrity cons are different from the fannish experience. I mentioned that I'd been to multiple Motor City Comic Cons and that it really was a different experience--people are there for autographs and to buy merch. But I'm really not that into standing in line for an autograph--I really want to connect with the fans, and we all agreed that connecting with fans was the biggest reason for attending HP cons.

There were several pigeons in attendance, but they wandered off when we didn't share.

Two o'clock: Loyalty panel. Which turned out to be a loyalty roundtable. However, the chairs were set up for a panel and I was in the very back. Everyone was facing the front, so I couldn't hear what anyone was saying, and it was very frustrating. They began by talking about Percy & Sirius going against their families, which was interesting, but then the audience members began speaking, and that was it for me. Then I started developing a carpet civilization which was very organized, with a huge lattice of gardens all connected by rail. There was one giant urban center with an outer circle where the worker families lived, and they took the rail out to the gardens during the day to toil in the fields. There was an inner city made up of artists and government. Then I left, because it was obvious I wasn't paying attention. I'm certain it was lovely, but not being able to hear makes it frustrating. :(

Three o'clock: Werewolf in Society. I sat next to alchemia, bugland, and saridout. This was an interesting look at Fenrir, especially in relation to Lupin. Fenrir's physical appearance is very similar to classical werewolf appearances. Fenrir is a cannibalistic and sexual predator who preys on the weak. He also allies himself with Voldemort and is working for the upheaval of society. Is definitely related to the Norse Fenrir, who was prophesied to bring about Ragnarök, the end of the world. Ragnarök, however, also brings with it a new order--a new set of gods--which is exactly like the HP universe and what happens after DH.

Lupin is unwelcome in both worlds, because he tries to live as a wizard. Fenrir is also doubly marginalized--he is not truly accepted by the DE's, and does not bear the Dark Mark and is used only for his killing powers. Fenrir wants to make a new werewolf society.

Four o'clock: Was Draco Redeemed? yolanda_potter gave this talk. She mentioned house unity, and Slytherins, and the lack of a "good Slytherin." She talked about characters who went against their background like Regulus, Andromeda, and Sirius. The epilogue shows us that the stigma against Slytherin House is still intact. An interesting presentation.

Then Gmonkey and I were walking through the lobby and nimori was playing a MARY SUE GAME THAT SHE MADE HERSELF!!! It was FANTASTIC. The board had a squid on it, she'd made all of the fairy game pieces, and there were even game cards! What an incredible game! ziasudra_fic and amanuensis1 were playing it with her. I was totally excited about it and hope she talks about it or sells copies of it at some point.

Marginaliana and I went to Tamarind, which was fantastic. I had sushi again, and it was wonderful. They had cucumber water and honey walnut chicken that rocked. We had banana wontons with chocolate sauce for dessert. I wanted to drink the chocolate sauce but I didn't want to embarrass Marginaliana.

We went to the drabble/drawble booths, and Gmonkey drew omelet!Snape for me. With extra tomatoes.

We played fandomopoly, which was hilarious (don't worry, there are more photo entries coming). Eventually we ended up talking with unsymbolic, ac1d6urn, raventbear, sinick, and Marginaliana, and there was some sort of conversation involving cupcakes and handcuffs and gravedigging.

Marginaliana and I listened to a podcast performance where Gmonkey played Ron, and she had to rap about a Short Snout dragon. She performed admirably. I really believed that she was Ron, rapping about how much he loves Short Snouts.

Then M and I rushed off to hear bronze_ribbons perform D'accord, d'accord at eleven. She tried to bribe us with baklava, but it didn't work because we were already planning on attending. I ate the baklava anyway. Delicious.

This was a really fascinating experience. Ribbons is a natural reader with a lovely voice, and she incorporated small motions and gestures into the reading to help the viewer/listener understand what was going on. For example, one character salutes another with chopsticks, and she made a similar hand motion. She also made eye contact quite often throughout the reading, which was very well handled--she never lost her place. She often would move from one side to the other to differentiate who was speaking in a conversation.

I am not much into listening to talk, except maybe snapecast-style podcasts, and this was a really new and quite intriguing experience. Somehow the images seemed much more vivid and intimate. It's a very tame story--there are kisses--but it somehow seemed quite alluring and more passionate and real than when I read. I really enjoyed this very much, and if you ever have an opportunity to hear her read, definitely go for it.

I hear that there are audio versions of some of her stories, but I don't have time to look for links at the moment.

Then to bed.