• …
  • About
  • Vampire Month Alumni
  • World Book Night

Lurking Musings

~ Musings of a newly published writer

Lurking Musings

Tag Archives: The Female Gaze

@mancunicon: a weekend in the life of Eastercon Part 2: Saturday

03 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Balancing the Creative life, David L Clements, Doctor Who, EasterCon, Jackie Burns, Juliet Kemp, Peter Ellis, Smuzz, The Female Gaze, Tony Ballantyne


In our last instalment of ‘Eastercon’, we went through Friday, including the True Love and Trophies panel starring Yours Truly. Today I intend to work through the events of Saturday…

 

IMG_8216-Pano

The ‘Balancing the Creative Life’ panel.

 

 

I had a late start on Saturday and a relatively easy day. I turned up at 1pm in time for a panel which I felt was very relevant to me – Balancing the Creative life. This starred Tony Ballantyne as moderator and had Jackie Burns, David L Clements. Peter Ellis and Juliet Kemp discussing the issues of maintaining a 9 – 5 day job while also writing or producing art to a high enough standard. Several of the panellists claimed to cheat. Peter Ellis stated that he had not really started to write properly until he was retired from his full time teaching job and David L Clements was quick to point out that his job as an Astrophysicist did actually provide a lot of useful research material for SF novels. This panel also covered issues like being a carer for a family member and how to cope with raising a family. From that discussion I came away with a sense that I was doing a lot of the things needed to be both a full time worker and a writer – things like considering plotlines and character development in the otherwise dead time spent travelling to and from work, making good use of holidays and so on. I was also made aware of the wonders of noise cancelling headphones when it comes to shutting out distractions…

IMG_8173.jpg

General bustle of the Con

 

Later in the afternoon, I tried to attend the Female gaze panel, mainly because it was mentioned as part of the True Love and Trophies panel and was something I was interested in. However, it seems as though our ringing endorsement of this panel during our slot was enough to get them full long before the panel was due to start. So unfortunately I missed it, as did Ruth F Long who I caught up with later in an attempt to find out if she had learnt anything from it.

So, instead I decided to wander into a talk that was taking place in a larger room next door which was entitled ‘the Ecology of Doctor Who’ by Eira and Smuzz. This wasn’t (as you might expect) a discussion of fictional alien ecology but rather an interesting overview of the relationship between Doctor Who as a BBC TV programme and the ecological issues that were prevalent at different points in its history. Covering such things as the nuclear fears of the 50s, fuel crisis, deforestation and how these were represented in the show. The narrative was accompanied by a series of clips illustrating the points made and though these were plagued by technical hitches which delayed the start of the talk, they did help to make the points clear. The upshot of the talk was that Doctor Who has lost its way recently with regards to stories about the environment, though it is not clear if this is a deliberate policy decision or merely an accident of story selection, and that more should be done to use the show as a tool for educating the viewers about the issues relevant today. It was a talk delivered passionately with a lot of excellent arguments by a speaker who really knew his Who history and made a lot of points I agreed with, though I did disagree that New Who had wholly abandoned its liberal enviro friendly roots as there have been stories covering those issues. However, I am fully in support of there being more of that sort of thing – not just the ecological issues but also social and political ones. Doing the job that SF does so well – warning us about the dangers of the future based on the trends evident in the present.

After the Who talk ended (late due to aforementioned technical issues) I was rescued from the con by a crack team of special forces who dragged me to a restaurant for dinner… after which it was time to return to the convention for drinks and the disco… the disco that I missed due to getting involved in some fascinating discussions with various random people…

Next instalment: Sunday and a date with radio…

@mancunicon: a weekend in the life of Eastercon Part 1: Friday

01 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Bees, Charles Stross, Chris Wooding, David Tallerman, EasterCon, Jacey Bedford, Justina Robson, Kate Soley Barton, Manchester, Mancunicon, panels, R.A Smith, Romance, Ruth F Long, The Female Gaze, True Love and Trophies Panel


NB: There are a lot of links in here as I have tried to link to something from every person I saw over the weekend. However, I could not link to everyone mainly because I could not find a link I was 100% certain people would want shared (personal twitters etc.) If I linked you and you want it removed or (horrors of horrors) I didn’t link you and you are offended by this contact me. It can be fixed.

So, the weekend of Easter is always Eastercon time for those of a SF and Fantasy bent. An event where writers, artists and fans get together to talk, panel, display, sell and generally network amongst themselves. This year’s event was set in the sunny northern climes* of Manchester and was therefore aptly named Mancunicon and given a SF remodelling of that location’s famous Bee symbol** as a logo.IMG_8232

I’d decided to check out Mancunicon and see what all the fuss was about. After all, it was in the same  city and I am nothing if not lazy about how far I travel. So I booked as a member of the convention with no idea of what to expect. Not only that, I decided to offer myself up as tribute and volunteer to go on panels. May have been an insane thing to do but I soon discovered that insanity was all good here…

In the weeks leading up to the event I was informed which panel I was to be sacrificed on and given contact with the other members of it. A few emails and we all seemed to be up to speed on what we were doing. I therefore turned up well prepared for what I had to do on the panel and a lot of excitement for what was to come, though still not really sure about a lot of it…

Before my panel, however, there was a whole afternoon to get through. I wandered into the Deansgate Hilton in time to register and to attend the first panel that had caught my eye – Twisting the Story with Editor Gillian Redfearn, Susan Bartholomew, David Tallerman, Chris Wooding, Sebastien De Castell and Charles Stross. A fascinating discussion ensued about a topic that I have blogged about in the past and which gave some interesting insights. Ideas such as how to make a villain sympathetic were discussed (love seems to conquer all here, I used that one myself later). Unfortunately for me, Charles Stross was employing some hi tech gadgetry to jinx camera electronics, possibly involving the binding of demons into computer circuits, which meant that every time I tried to take a photo in that room it would not expose properly. Well that or I’d stupidly set the camera wrong… My ego says it was option one because that involves being defeated by a foe with superior resources. Chances are it was option two. Regardless, I could barely get any decent photos of that panel, which is a shame. The camera was mysteriously behaving for the next panel (which to be fair was a better lit room and I had noticed the settings were messed up and was able to fix them).

IMG_8169-Pano.jpg

The Biology in SF Panel. Not shown – Alex Lamb who is hiding offscreen

This was followed by a panel on Biology in SF. This one was lead by a group of writers who had between them more science PhDs than the average person could accumulate in a lifetime and two of them were not academics at all. When I had originally seen this in the schedule I had felt a little put out that I had not been considered for it given my background, but I judged the panel worthy and they played well to a packed house with standing room only. There was discussion of modern genetic techniques (in particular the technology that has recently been used to remove HIV virus DNA from T cells) and how Biology is now at the point where it is useful to SF, being at a point where it is still accessible to the layman while being weird and abstract enough for the wow factor without getting quite so weird or abstract as physics sometimes strays into and which only Stephen Hawkings can understand (which does somewhat limit your audience share…). The double bonus was that I could count this as continual professional development for my RL job…

Following this I went get some food and to sit in the bar and soak up the atmosphere of the event with a friend while waiting for my panel to start. It was during this time that Storm Constantine and Freda Warrington wandered in and casually claimed some seats right next to us.

You know, as if they were ordinary people and not authors who are like well known and stuff.

And that, as I was beginning to learn, was the spirit of Eastercon. There were some well known names here. I already mentioned Charles Stross, Chris Wooding and a few others above and there was also Ian McDonald (present as a Guest of Honour) and some other names who I was at that point unaware of. Award winners, best sellers, known names in SF and Fantasy literature. But there was no ‘us and them’ feeling. We were all ‘Us’ and that led to a nice relaxed atmosphere in which it was possible to have a conversation with someone about Donald Trump and forget that they have sold more books than you probably ever could.

12910969_10153335559156876_1939369643_n

The ‘True Love and Trophies’ Panel as taken by R.A Smith (who was standing at the back due to lack of seats)

My panel started at 7 but the usual procedure was to report to the Green room for a chat with the rest of the panellists so we can go over our plans. It was called the Green room but in reality it was more the ‘Green Landing’ – a partitioned space on the third floor of the hotel near some of the panel rooms where those taking part in events could wait before going in. The room was run by the hard working and efficient Green Room Gophers who were there to check everything was in order and all panellists had everything they needed – including the drink that was on offer for anyone doing an event at the Con.

 

12910721_10153335559236876_194514975_n

All I can say here is I was probably making some deeply relevant and emphatic point, hence the hand blurring. Kate is clearly not impressed 🙂

I met up with the rest of the panel – the moderator Ruth Frances Long, Jacey Bedford, Kate Soley Barton and Justina Robson – and we had a short discussion about what we were going to talk about and, mainly, if we all agreed on what the brief for the panel actually meant. Then we did the panel…

And it was amazing! I was expecting a handful of people and all of those people we knew personally (R.A Smith was in the audience at my request taking photos and there were a few others I knew). However, like the biology panel, it was standing room only. OK, to be fair, the rooms were a little too small and so filled up quickly, but that was still a lot of people interested enough in ‘True Love and Trophies’ to stand at the back and to hang around outside trying to get in even though we were clearly full.

Discussions revolved around romance clichés. We touched on the ‘female gaze’ as that was the topic of a panel planned for later in the weekend the concept of using imagery designed specifically to attract female readers or viewers such as when male superheroes flex flawless musculature. Ruth posed the question about how this has affected romance literature. The inevitable and ubiquitous ‘half naked male six pack’ was put on the table (um, not literally I should add here…) and each of the female romance writers on the panel (Ruth, Justine and Jacey) seemed to have a story about how their publishers keep putting such things on there despite all requests not to. On other topics, Kate, as the reader in the group, made references to fan fiction and how romance works there. I made comments about the prevalence of ‘Happy Ever After’ and how it is ironic that the story considered the greatest romance ever by some, Romeo and Juliet, does not end happily at all.  The overall theme was what fantasy and SF could learn from more traditional romance stories and I think we covered a lot of it very well in the time we had. We could have gone on longer but we were out of time. I guess we left the audience wanting more which is always good.

The evening ended with drinks and discussion in the hotel bar… Overall a good time was had by all and there will be more on this in our next instalment (stay tuned!)

 

 

 

*Remember, as Obi Wan Kenobi was wont to say, we mean sunny ‘from a certain point of view’ i.e. not at all sunny. I’ve discussed Manchester weather before.

**You know about the Bees yes? They are on every bin and bollard in the city. No one could miss them (well I did…). The mystery of the bees was referred to a few times this weekend. TLDR version is they refer to the industry of the city.

Twitter Updates

  • Just entered the Other worldly competition on @PurplePort #photo #competition #PurplePort purpleport.com/competition/vi… 3 days ago
  • New #NSFW #castingcall for Edinburgh, City of, United Kingdom #PurplePort: purpleport.com//castings/4472… 3 days ago
  • Just entered the Behind the scenes competition on @PurplePort #photo #competition #PurplePort purpleport.com/competition/vi… 2 weeks ago
  • Just entered the From the future competition on @PurplePort #photo #competition #PurplePort purpleport.com/competition/vi… 3 weeks ago
  • @CBRedWriter Its well deserved. 2 months ago
Follow @areteus

Like me on Facebook

Like me on Facebook

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join the Lurkers

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,006 other followers

Recent Posts

  • Eastercon Artshow
  • Interview: Gillian Polack
  • Blending the Con
  • The Elementals: Russell A Smith interview.
  • New Year Dog

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Lurking Musings
    • Join 2,006 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Lurking Musings
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...