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valis2Sunday
I got up early to watch an informal slash panel with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
titti, bethbethbeth, midnitemaraud_r, and...I've forgotten the other person. eee! Sweet Almond, maybe?
They asked interesting questions of the audience, such as how did we get into slash, is HP your first fandom for slash, femmeslash. They are all so very entertaining and it was so well handled. I was at the front so I could actually hear everyone, thank goodness.
They talked about the difference between male erotica writers and female slash writers, and how some female slash writers are so very interested in character and plot.
Published fanfic of copyright-lapsed works, like Sherlock Holmes. Fandom community, and how it can be tough to break in and become accepted.
Eleven o'clock: Dueling society.marginaliana and I attended this. I've long wondered what it must be like to live in wizarding society and carry around a small tool that can make your lunch, cut your hair, or kill another wizard. rm is a classical/historic fencer, and she talked about the difference between sport fencing and classical fencing.
Swords have one thing in common with wands, and that is dueling and personal safety. Personal safety was once secured by sword, and she mentioned that often when researching classical/historical duels you find that both opponents died during the duel. After all, they don't just die immediately when stabbed. Duelists fear amateurs more than pros. Fencers came from "traditions" and had trade secrets that they sometimes took to their grave or only taught certain select students. Swords in some societies were privileges. Just like carrying a sword, wizards have a weapon on their person at all times.
Going into Azkaban, wands get broken--they lose the privilege of having a wand.
The wizarding world is quite Victorian in nature, which I agree with absolutely. She talked about street fights and duels, and their counterparts in the HP world. Seconds agree upon the terms, care for the firsts, and take up the duel if necessary.
In the CoS movie, Lockhart has the perfect saber dueling stance. Snape has a distinct lack of a formal stance, which points to a street fight background instead of formal training. Rapier and cloak can be a very effective dueling style, but Lockhart takes off his cloak and tosses it into the audience. There is some thought that Snape's outstretched hand is because he can do wandless magic, because it violates every fencing stance known.
She spoke of La Maupin, who was a female duelist who dressed as a man and had many quite astonishing adventures. I'm intrigued and will have to rent something or read a book about her.
Noon: Fantasy Casting. Who would you want to play the parts? Exactly what it sounds like. Marginaliana and I attended this. It had a few good moments.
Lunch withgmonkey42 and loudmeggaphone. I have completely forgotten where we ate!
Two-thirty: Araminta Potter Malfoy and the Mary Sue. The author wasn't present; someone else presented it. Gmonkey, Meggaphone and I attended this because our presentation started at three and we wanted to be ready for it.
Apparently AMP was a Mary Sue created specifically to be an author avatar. The author decided to just let her mind wander and write as it came into her head. She was the daughter of HP/DM and had many Mary Sue-like adventures at Hogwarts.
The point of the paper was that she listed herself as age thirteen in her profile, yet she received hundreds of scathing reviews about the fic. The insults! People called her brainless and said she ruined HP for them.
Three o'clock: Our Snape's Mary Sues presentation went well! Thank you SO MUCH to all who attended. It's a blur to me now. Gmonkey and Loudmeggaphone rock!! That's all I remember.
Four o'clock:unsymbolic presented a lecture on Fandom Wank and the role of gossip and sexuality in fandom. He broke it down into SRS BZNS and OMG FANDOM NOT SRS BZNS which made me laugh like a crazy person. The definitions of both are based on one's ability to differentiate between the two. He also talked about knowledge and how it can be broken into four quadrants: Official, Legitimate, Pop, and Illegitimate Knowledge. Where these knowledges overlap we find other different kinds of knowled; for example, official and legitimate knowledge overlap to create scientific and useful knowledge, while pop/legitimate creates tabloid knowledge and common sense.
Sexuality is often thought of like a slippery slope; it starts at "good" forms of sex, slides to "contested" forms of sex, and then bottoms out at "bad" forms of sex. I would posit that this slippery slope has changed and will continue to change as our boundaries are questioned and shaped.
Unsymbolic also talked about gossip. Gossip and wank are comprised of storytelling. These are the most intimate and personal of stories. When we reduce ourselves and our fic to a textual medium, it's no wonder that we treat each other with the same rough love that we give the characters we use.
He went on to mention romantic fantasy fanfic sex vs real, embodied sex, and explained that because they are characters who are not us, they cannot challenge things--in fanfic, sex is often something quite different than in real life.
Dinner at Mercat--which is a tapas place across the street from the hotel. I only have one word: Sangria. My dinner companions werebronze_ribbons, snottygrrl, and Marginaliana. We had many different cheeses with lots of delicious accompaniments, such as cheese with chocolate. No, seriously. It was incredible. And we had lots of other amazing things like pork belly and garlic shrimp. By the end I was quite happy. Did I mention that I ordered a pitcher of sangria? Mmmm. Sangria.
Then I photographed people at the ball and quite forcefully inserted my foot in my mouth, but I won't go into that here. The ball was in a large ballroom (imagine that), with a balcony running around the entire perimeter. The DJ was hilarious--he kept playing eighties music and hip-hop and punk revival and it was clear that he knew the audience, but still, there were a few songs that are just undanceable. I had a great time dancing withvampireanneke. Bronze Ribbons is a terrific dancer and she was wearing this great red number. Gmonkey was still dressed in her Gilderoy outfit and Meggaphone wore a fantastic awesome dress. At one point they played a hip-hop song that has the Knight Rider bass line along with a sample of Indian music, and a girl got up on the balcony and did traditional Indian moves and it was so totally and utterly cool. The entire crowd was cheering.
There was some Sirius/Remus action on the balcony, including kissing! And I swear that there was nearly a balcony fight--one side versus the other--I was hoping they would clear the dance floor and do a dance-off a la Beat It.
sinick went through two decades of dance moves with me in under a minute. She is a party animal! If you ever have a chance to dance with her, look out!
Gmonkey and Meggaphone danced to "Open Arms" and it was teh kewtest thing I have ever seen. No, seriously.
At the very end of the ball, Marginaliana and I ended up singing Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" to each other, complete with hand motions--that was some of the most fun I've ever had. It was hilarious. And then we all sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in the most emotive way possible. It was more of a group singalong than a dance, honestly. It was terrific.
Off to the movie. Watching movies with other fen is the high point of the con for me, normally. And this was OotP, which could have been awesome. However, there just weren't enough people. And a lot of them now sing Wrock lyrics when certain characters show up. It was a bit too loud, and a bit too boring, and Ribbons eventually left, and Gmonkey and Meggaphone left, and then I wandered off.vampireanneke was saying fun things, but not enough of the other people were--there was a lot of screaming when certain actions happened onscreen.
I wish I had gone to some of the earlier ones. Or maybe not. Perhaps this, too, is changing...
Monday
Breakfast was only average, if that. It was all food that probably had been prepared the night before. The hash browns were the poster child for mediocre.
There was a trivia competition, and I'm still scratching my head at why these things were scheduled during community meals.marginaliana and I had to say goodbye to bronze_ribbons, which is really the awful part--when it's over. I hate saying goodbye to all of these wonderful people!
The lobby crew--the con behind the con people--were holding court in a defunct bar on the main floor.titti and bethbethbeth and such. Definitely a group that changes from con to con, but also stays the same. I love talking and just listening to them--so many witty, hilarious observations on fandom and fans.
I went to an impromptu feminism roundtable withgmonkey42. unsymbolic, kabal42, r_grayjoy, vampireanneke, ragdoll and other people whose name I didn't catch attended.
We talked about how we often see men hexing each other in HP, but not as often do we see women hexing! Generally we only see the aftermath of women's hexes. Bellatrix, Rita and Umbridge are strong, independent women, who are "evil" or near evil. Unsymbolic questioned our definition of feminism, and we talked about feminism as a whole. He brought up a great pie metaphor: Liberal feminists want equal parts of the pie, radical feminists want no part of the pie and will tell you what they want instead, and cultural feminists want honor and respect for baking the pie.
Bellatrix might have married LeStrange just for moving upward in society; it's interesting that she's childless. We also talked about Tonks and how her character was not what we expected it to be.
Then, after much running about and grabbing bellhops, I loadeddjin7's suitcase and themostepotente into my car. Yes, I had a companion for the trip home, which turned out to be delightful! She even bought me dinner. We had a very long conversation. Poor thing--I know I interrupted waaaaay too much, but I was just so excited to have more HP talk! It was really wonderful, and I hope that we can get together again sometime in the future. She rocks, utterly. And she's a saint. She had to put up with all of the valis quirks for six hours...
I got up early to watch an informal slash panel with
titti, bethbethbeth, midnitemaraud_r, and...I've forgotten the other person. eee! Sweet Almond, maybe?They asked interesting questions of the audience, such as how did we get into slash, is HP your first fandom for slash, femmeslash. They are all so very entertaining and it was so well handled. I was at the front so I could actually hear everyone, thank goodness.
They talked about the difference between male erotica writers and female slash writers, and how some female slash writers are so very interested in character and plot.
Published fanfic of copyright-lapsed works, like Sherlock Holmes. Fandom community, and how it can be tough to break in and become accepted.
Eleven o'clock: Dueling society.
marginaliana and I attended this. I've long wondered what it must be like to live in wizarding society and carry around a small tool that can make your lunch, cut your hair, or kill another wizard. rm is a classical/historic fencer, and she talked about the difference between sport fencing and classical fencing.Swords have one thing in common with wands, and that is dueling and personal safety. Personal safety was once secured by sword, and she mentioned that often when researching classical/historical duels you find that both opponents died during the duel. After all, they don't just die immediately when stabbed. Duelists fear amateurs more than pros. Fencers came from "traditions" and had trade secrets that they sometimes took to their grave or only taught certain select students. Swords in some societies were privileges. Just like carrying a sword, wizards have a weapon on their person at all times.
Going into Azkaban, wands get broken--they lose the privilege of having a wand.
The wizarding world is quite Victorian in nature, which I agree with absolutely. She talked about street fights and duels, and their counterparts in the HP world. Seconds agree upon the terms, care for the firsts, and take up the duel if necessary.
In the CoS movie, Lockhart has the perfect saber dueling stance. Snape has a distinct lack of a formal stance, which points to a street fight background instead of formal training. Rapier and cloak can be a very effective dueling style, but Lockhart takes off his cloak and tosses it into the audience. There is some thought that Snape's outstretched hand is because he can do wandless magic, because it violates every fencing stance known.
She spoke of La Maupin, who was a female duelist who dressed as a man and had many quite astonishing adventures. I'm intrigued and will have to rent something or read a book about her.
Noon: Fantasy Casting. Who would you want to play the parts? Exactly what it sounds like. Marginaliana and I attended this. It had a few good moments.
Lunch with
gmonkey42 and loudmeggaphone. I have completely forgotten where we ate!Two-thirty: Araminta Potter Malfoy and the Mary Sue. The author wasn't present; someone else presented it. Gmonkey, Meggaphone and I attended this because our presentation started at three and we wanted to be ready for it.
Apparently AMP was a Mary Sue created specifically to be an author avatar. The author decided to just let her mind wander and write as it came into her head. She was the daughter of HP/DM and had many Mary Sue-like adventures at Hogwarts.
The point of the paper was that she listed herself as age thirteen in her profile, yet she received hundreds of scathing reviews about the fic. The insults! People called her brainless and said she ruined HP for them.
Three o'clock: Our Snape's Mary Sues presentation went well! Thank you SO MUCH to all who attended. It's a blur to me now. Gmonkey and Loudmeggaphone rock!! That's all I remember.
Four o'clock:
unsymbolic presented a lecture on Fandom Wank and the role of gossip and sexuality in fandom. He broke it down into SRS BZNS and OMG FANDOM NOT SRS BZNS which made me laugh like a crazy person. The definitions of both are based on one's ability to differentiate between the two. He also talked about knowledge and how it can be broken into four quadrants: Official, Legitimate, Pop, and Illegitimate Knowledge. Where these knowledges overlap we find other different kinds of knowled; for example, official and legitimate knowledge overlap to create scientific and useful knowledge, while pop/legitimate creates tabloid knowledge and common sense.Sexuality is often thought of like a slippery slope; it starts at "good" forms of sex, slides to "contested" forms of sex, and then bottoms out at "bad" forms of sex. I would posit that this slippery slope has changed and will continue to change as our boundaries are questioned and shaped.
Unsymbolic also talked about gossip. Gossip and wank are comprised of storytelling. These are the most intimate and personal of stories. When we reduce ourselves and our fic to a textual medium, it's no wonder that we treat each other with the same rough love that we give the characters we use.
He went on to mention romantic fantasy fanfic sex vs real, embodied sex, and explained that because they are characters who are not us, they cannot challenge things--in fanfic, sex is often something quite different than in real life.
Dinner at Mercat--which is a tapas place across the street from the hotel. I only have one word: Sangria. My dinner companions were
bronze_ribbons, snottygrrl, and Marginaliana. We had many different cheeses with lots of delicious accompaniments, such as cheese with chocolate. No, seriously. It was incredible. And we had lots of other amazing things like pork belly and garlic shrimp. By the end I was quite happy. Did I mention that I ordered a pitcher of sangria? Mmmm. Sangria.Then I photographed people at the ball and quite forcefully inserted my foot in my mouth, but I won't go into that here. The ball was in a large ballroom (imagine that), with a balcony running around the entire perimeter. The DJ was hilarious--he kept playing eighties music and hip-hop and punk revival and it was clear that he knew the audience, but still, there were a few songs that are just undanceable. I had a great time dancing with
vampireanneke. Bronze Ribbons is a terrific dancer and she was wearing this great red number. Gmonkey was still dressed in her Gilderoy outfit and Meggaphone wore a fantastic awesome dress. At one point they played a hip-hop song that has the Knight Rider bass line along with a sample of Indian music, and a girl got up on the balcony and did traditional Indian moves and it was so totally and utterly cool. The entire crowd was cheering.There was some Sirius/Remus action on the balcony, including kissing! And I swear that there was nearly a balcony fight--one side versus the other--I was hoping they would clear the dance floor and do a dance-off a la Beat It.
sinick went through two decades of dance moves with me in under a minute. She is a party animal! If you ever have a chance to dance with her, look out!Gmonkey and Meggaphone danced to "Open Arms" and it was teh kewtest thing I have ever seen. No, seriously.
At the very end of the ball, Marginaliana and I ended up singing Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" to each other, complete with hand motions--that was some of the most fun I've ever had. It was hilarious. And then we all sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in the most emotive way possible. It was more of a group singalong than a dance, honestly. It was terrific.
Off to the movie. Watching movies with other fen is the high point of the con for me, normally. And this was OotP, which could have been awesome. However, there just weren't enough people. And a lot of them now sing Wrock lyrics when certain characters show up. It was a bit too loud, and a bit too boring, and Ribbons eventually left, and Gmonkey and Meggaphone left, and then I wandered off.
vampireanneke was saying fun things, but not enough of the other people were--there was a lot of screaming when certain actions happened onscreen.I wish I had gone to some of the earlier ones. Or maybe not. Perhaps this, too, is changing...
Monday
Breakfast was only average, if that. It was all food that probably had been prepared the night before. The hash browns were the poster child for mediocre.
There was a trivia competition, and I'm still scratching my head at why these things were scheduled during community meals.
marginaliana and I had to say goodbye to bronze_ribbons, which is really the awful part--when it's over. I hate saying goodbye to all of these wonderful people!The lobby crew--the con behind the con people--were holding court in a defunct bar on the main floor.
titti and bethbethbeth and such. Definitely a group that changes from con to con, but also stays the same. I love talking and just listening to them--so many witty, hilarious observations on fandom and fans.I went to an impromptu feminism roundtable with
gmonkey42. unsymbolic, kabal42, r_grayjoy, vampireanneke, ragdoll and other people whose name I didn't catch attended.We talked about how we often see men hexing each other in HP, but not as often do we see women hexing! Generally we only see the aftermath of women's hexes. Bellatrix, Rita and Umbridge are strong, independent women, who are "evil" or near evil. Unsymbolic questioned our definition of feminism, and we talked about feminism as a whole. He brought up a great pie metaphor: Liberal feminists want equal parts of the pie, radical feminists want no part of the pie and will tell you what they want instead, and cultural feminists want honor and respect for baking the pie.
Bellatrix might have married LeStrange just for moving upward in society; it's interesting that she's childless. We also talked about Tonks and how her character was not what we expected it to be.
Then, after much running about and grabbing bellhops, I loaded
djin7's suitcase and themostepotente into my car. Yes, I had a companion for the trip home, which turned out to be delightful! She even bought me dinner. We had a very long conversation. Poor thing--I know I interrupted waaaaay too much, but I was just so excited to have more HP talk! It was really wonderful, and I hope that we can get together again sometime in the future. She rocks, utterly. And she's a saint. She had to put up with all of the valis quirks for six hours...![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-15 06:07 pm (UTC)Oooh, now that's interesting...
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-15 07:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-15 07:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-17 02:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-15 10:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-17 02:15 am (UTC)Glad you are enjoying these!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-16 04:21 am (UTC)Alas, I missed the R/S action in the balcony, though I did see one Remus outside smoking a couple of times over the weekend, and I passed Padfoot in the lobby the night of the ball.
I love cons so much!!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-17 02:18 am (UTC)Will fix the entry when I get back--I don't have time to go through and correct the errors right now.
Did you see the pics of the R/S dolls? That was awesome.
I love cons too!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-16 03:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-17 02:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-17 04:35 am (UTC)