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Wiscon Sunday
May. 31st, 2010 12:46 amWiscon's nearly at an end. I reluctantly tore myself away from the buzz of activity still going on on the 6th floor; the spirit is willing but the flesh is thinking longingly of bed. I'll try to make it to a panel tomorrow, and then it's the shuttle and the airport and farewell.
In the morning, I went to a panel about paranormal romance, which was to discuss the tropes of this genre, including such issues as reduced choice through "soul bonds" or other mechanisms that forced two people together, as well as the power imbalances between male and female. One panelist pointed out that tension and suffering was essential to a novel; so if there were no challenges to the romance, there would be no story. She perceived it as a mechanism for locking the heroine and the hero in a box; then the story is about reaching accomodation. Another suggested that an alpha male was an important trope, and the supernatural hero (werewolf, vampire etc) provided guilt-free alpha-fare, while the same behavior in a contemporary romance would have been abusive or dangerous. And the point of the alpha male was, very often, to tame them. "He's got to grovel by the end of the book," said one panelist. From a marketing standpoint, the tropes were all about what the audience demand.
After that, had lunch at the Noodles place with Julie and Kater, and were joined later by Karen Joy Fowler and Terry Bisson.
The afternoon panel I attended was an interesting discussion on writing in English for the US market, even when the stories are set in other places like New Zaealand or Nigeria. We discussed the trade-off between accessibility and not "Americanizing" writing. Then I went to a "Writing the Other" panel, where people discussed the ones where the writer of the story or play or TV series that didn't fail, the ones that are Doing It Right.
After that, a hilarious reading featuring Eileen Gunn, Pat Murphy, Carol Emswhiller, and Terry Bisson. (I came late and missed one by Karen Joy Fowler.)
For dinner, Julie, Kater, Karen (the new friend, not KJF) went out for dinner with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yhlee ; I 've admired her writing since our Critters days, about ten years ago. This was the first time we'd actually met.
Then it was on to the dessert salon with Julie, who kindly stood in line and saved me a spot (my turn next year!). The Guest of Honor speeches from Nnedi Okorafor and from Mary Anne Mohanraj were moving and inspiring. Then the next year's GOHs were announced: Nisi Shawl and Elizabeth Moon.
In the morning, I went to a panel about paranormal romance, which was to discuss the tropes of this genre, including such issues as reduced choice through "soul bonds" or other mechanisms that forced two people together, as well as the power imbalances between male and female. One panelist pointed out that tension and suffering was essential to a novel; so if there were no challenges to the romance, there would be no story. She perceived it as a mechanism for locking the heroine and the hero in a box; then the story is about reaching accomodation. Another suggested that an alpha male was an important trope, and the supernatural hero (werewolf, vampire etc) provided guilt-free alpha-fare, while the same behavior in a contemporary romance would have been abusive or dangerous. And the point of the alpha male was, very often, to tame them. "He's got to grovel by the end of the book," said one panelist. From a marketing standpoint, the tropes were all about what the audience demand.
After that, had lunch at the Noodles place with Julie and Kater, and were joined later by Karen Joy Fowler and Terry Bisson.
The afternoon panel I attended was an interesting discussion on writing in English for the US market, even when the stories are set in other places like New Zaealand or Nigeria. We discussed the trade-off between accessibility and not "Americanizing" writing. Then I went to a "Writing the Other" panel, where people discussed the ones where the writer of the story or play or TV series that didn't fail, the ones that are Doing It Right.
After that, a hilarious reading featuring Eileen Gunn, Pat Murphy, Carol Emswhiller, and Terry Bisson. (I came late and missed one by Karen Joy Fowler.)
For dinner, Julie, Kater, Karen (the new friend, not KJF) went out for dinner with
yhlee ; I 've admired her writing since our Critters days, about ten years ago. This was the first time we'd actually met.Then it was on to the dessert salon with Julie, who kindly stood in line and saved me a spot (my turn next year!). The Guest of Honor speeches from Nnedi Okorafor and from Mary Anne Mohanraj were moving and inspiring. Then the next year's GOHs were announced: Nisi Shawl and Elizabeth Moon.
