(no subject)
Sep. 4th, 2004 12:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSo, what did I do today, then?
Well, we got to the con at about 11 or so, and we went to the dealer room and art show, and wandered around a bit. There was a group meeting for lunch; we didn't go to lunch with them, but we stuck around to say hi. The first actual panels we went to were at 1 pm. I went to a panel called "My Worst Story -- and Why I Wrote It", with Fredrick Pohl, William Tenn, and Robert J. Sawyer. William Tenn said that his worst story was his first published story. Which had some good ideas in it, he felt, but, well, he didn't know how to write then. He wrote it with a copy of "Writer's Digest" on his lap, which said that you should divide up the story into scenes, and each scene should have a "wow" finish, and he did, and it sucked. But it got published, and he got a check for $97.50, which filled his entire refrigerator with groceries, which is, after all, why he wrote it.
Fredrick Pohl's worst story . . . well, he was stationed in the South Pacific in the Navy, and he desperately missed New York. So, to deal with homesickness, he decided to write a novel set in New York. And what did New York do better than anyone else? Advertisement! So he wrote a story about ad men in New York. The fact that he knew nothing about the advertising business was perhaps a bit of a problem.
Anyway, when he got back to the States, he actually got a job in the ad bisiness, writing copy, and he learned the business from the bottom up. And, a few years later, he pulled his manuscript out again, and re-read it. And he noticed two things about it. One, he had known nothing about advertisement at all when he wrote it. And two, the thing stunk to high heaven.
So he burnt it, and wrote other things.
They also talked about having their stories optioned for Hollywood. They LOVE it. Especially when the studios keep the thing in development for decades, and keep renewing the option. They get a check every year for doing nothing! Apparently, Pohl's first novel, The Star Merchants, has been under option since 1958. He gets a check every year from the studio, along with a note that the screenplay is under development.
At 2, I went to a panel by the MIT Media Lab, where Sandy Pentland and Marvin Minsky talked a bit about what they do there, and how cool it is to have the job of, "do whatever the hell I feel like doing." But I got bored after a while and wandered out. After that, we met Elizabeth Bear for the first time ever, which was cool, and went out for a beer with her and a bunch of other people. At 5, I went to a Tammy Peirce reading of some selections from Trickster's Queen, which is coming out in a couple weeks. It was selections I'd heard her read before, but it was good nonetheless.
At six and six-thirty, there were two half-hour panels which went together -- Constructing Technobable, where some authors and linguists (Mark Mandel, John McDaid, Scott Westerfield) discussed what technobabble was, how to make it sound reasonable-ish, and what kinds of nelogisms tend to actually work and to stick. Then there was the Technobabble Quiz, where Tyg quizzed Jordin Kare, Bill Higgins, and Howard Davidson about technobabble stuff. In the first round, he mentioned a science fictional concept, like "antigravity" or "warp speed", and the panel had to explain how it worked. In the second round, he'd quote a line from science fiction, and they had to identify what was going on, what it was from, and what was about to happen next. ("Activate the Hatling rays, and open the Vortex primer!" "Well, obviously, if you've just used the Vortex primer, then the next thing you've got to do is paint the vortex.")
In the third round, Tyg would read a quote, and the panel had to tell whether it came from real science, science fiction, or just something that the person who'd made up the questions had pulled out of his butt.
Around seven, Lis contacted me by walkie-talkie, and asked if I wanted to join them all for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and I did. So I got to see Elizabeth Bear and all the other people I'd met that afternoon, again.
After dinner, we managed to wander into the end of the Retro Hugos -- there were no Hugos awarded at the 1954 Worldcon (I don't know why -- maybe there wasn't a 1954 Worldcon), which means that we, here, fifty years later, are allowed to vote for the 1954 Hugos.
After that, we stood around a bit talking to people.
And all of a sudden, I felt Depression hit. It really is sudden. It feels like there's a metal grate at the bottom of my soul. Not only does all my happiness suddenly drain out, but my capacity to feel happines drains out with it. I can FEEL it drain away.
It just sometimes happens to me.
So I went off and sat down, and sat around for a couple hours, not doing anything, because, well, I was depressed, and then we came home.
Well, we got to the con at about 11 or so, and we went to the dealer room and art show, and wandered around a bit. There was a group meeting for lunch; we didn't go to lunch with them, but we stuck around to say hi. The first actual panels we went to were at 1 pm. I went to a panel called "My Worst Story -- and Why I Wrote It", with Fredrick Pohl, William Tenn, and Robert J. Sawyer. William Tenn said that his worst story was his first published story. Which had some good ideas in it, he felt, but, well, he didn't know how to write then. He wrote it with a copy of "Writer's Digest" on his lap, which said that you should divide up the story into scenes, and each scene should have a "wow" finish, and he did, and it sucked. But it got published, and he got a check for $97.50, which filled his entire refrigerator with groceries, which is, after all, why he wrote it.
Fredrick Pohl's worst story . . . well, he was stationed in the South Pacific in the Navy, and he desperately missed New York. So, to deal with homesickness, he decided to write a novel set in New York. And what did New York do better than anyone else? Advertisement! So he wrote a story about ad men in New York. The fact that he knew nothing about the advertising business was perhaps a bit of a problem.
Anyway, when he got back to the States, he actually got a job in the ad bisiness, writing copy, and he learned the business from the bottom up. And, a few years later, he pulled his manuscript out again, and re-read it. And he noticed two things about it. One, he had known nothing about advertisement at all when he wrote it. And two, the thing stunk to high heaven.
So he burnt it, and wrote other things.
They also talked about having their stories optioned for Hollywood. They LOVE it. Especially when the studios keep the thing in development for decades, and keep renewing the option. They get a check every year for doing nothing! Apparently, Pohl's first novel, The Star Merchants, has been under option since 1958. He gets a check every year from the studio, along with a note that the screenplay is under development.
At 2, I went to a panel by the MIT Media Lab, where Sandy Pentland and Marvin Minsky talked a bit about what they do there, and how cool it is to have the job of, "do whatever the hell I feel like doing." But I got bored after a while and wandered out. After that, we met Elizabeth Bear for the first time ever, which was cool, and went out for a beer with her and a bunch of other people. At 5, I went to a Tammy Peirce reading of some selections from Trickster's Queen, which is coming out in a couple weeks. It was selections I'd heard her read before, but it was good nonetheless.
At six and six-thirty, there were two half-hour panels which went together -- Constructing Technobable, where some authors and linguists (Mark Mandel, John McDaid, Scott Westerfield) discussed what technobabble was, how to make it sound reasonable-ish, and what kinds of nelogisms tend to actually work and to stick. Then there was the Technobabble Quiz, where Tyg quizzed Jordin Kare, Bill Higgins, and Howard Davidson about technobabble stuff. In the first round, he mentioned a science fictional concept, like "antigravity" or "warp speed", and the panel had to explain how it worked. In the second round, he'd quote a line from science fiction, and they had to identify what was going on, what it was from, and what was about to happen next. ("Activate the Hatling rays, and open the Vortex primer!" "Well, obviously, if you've just used the Vortex primer, then the next thing you've got to do is paint the vortex.")
In the third round, Tyg would read a quote, and the panel had to tell whether it came from real science, science fiction, or just something that the person who'd made up the questions had pulled out of his butt.
Around seven, Lis contacted me by walkie-talkie, and asked if I wanted to join them all for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and I did. So I got to see Elizabeth Bear and all the other people I'd met that afternoon, again.
After dinner, we managed to wander into the end of the Retro Hugos -- there were no Hugos awarded at the 1954 Worldcon (I don't know why -- maybe there wasn't a 1954 Worldcon), which means that we, here, fifty years later, are allowed to vote for the 1954 Hugos.
After that, we stood around a bit talking to people.
And all of a sudden, I felt Depression hit. It really is sudden. It feels like there's a metal grate at the bottom of my soul. Not only does all my happiness suddenly drain out, but my capacity to feel happines drains out with it. I can FEEL it drain away.
It just sometimes happens to me.
So I went off and sat down, and sat around for a couple hours, not doing anything, because, well, I was depressed, and then we came home.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-04 05:44 am (UTC)Oh no. :-(
*hugs you tightly*
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-04 06:11 am (UTC)1954 Hugos/Retro-Hugos
Date: 2004-09-08 08:55 pm (UTC)There were no 1954 Awards because the Hugo Awards were only started at the 1953 Worldcon, and were originally considered one-shot awards, so 1954 didn't present any awards. The 1955 Worldcon decided to award them, and every Worldcon since then has done so.
Nowadays, the Hugo Awards are regulated by the WSFS Constitution, and are one of the very few things that a Worldcon must do. In addition, a provision added some years ago allows a Worldcon held 50, 75, or 100 years after a Worldcon for which Hugo Awards have not been presented to present Retrospective Hugo Awards. There must have been a Worldcon held in the target year, so the years before 1939 are out, as are the three years between the third and fourth Worldcons. There must not have yet been Retro-Hugos presented for those years.
This year was the last of the "fifty-year" Retro-Hugos. The next opportuntity for such awards will be 2014.
Kevin Standlee