Baycon: Sunday report
May. 30th, 2016 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjStarted the day off with a workout again. The elliptical in the hotel gym is just different enough in action from my usual machine that my calf muscles are sore! Obviously I need to change up my routine more often.
I was audience for a panel on "Truth in History" which discussed the importance of basing fiction on the multiplicity of historic truths (and not just oversimplified "official history" written by winners and conquerors)--not simply for ethical reasons, but because it makes for more varied and more interesting fiction. Also noted was the tendency of readers to learn their history from fictionalized versions, perhaps even more than from history texts. So the choices we make in writing versions of history can shape public understanding of that history, for good or ill.
I was a panelist for "Does that come in vanilla?" for which the panel description was: There is an inherent assumption that polyamory or homosexuality come paired with kink. Why is that and is it a stereotype worth debunking? Having dispensed with the simplistic question in the title, we had a spirited discussion of why people's images of marginalized sexualities tend to get bundled with specific communities, behaviors, or tastes, and how (or whether) outsiders' understandings can be broadened. But we also discussed bundled assumptions about sexuality within marginalized communities, and the purposes that these assumptions serve, but within the community and in negotiating the external image of the community. (If I recall correctly, I started my introduction by apologizing for all the academese I was going to use reflexively.)
I had a lovely spot of late lunch with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ritaxis getting beta-reader feedback from her, to supplement the written notes I'll be getting. Later had off-site dinner at a small, crowded but fabulous Thai place with Karen, Chaz, Brad Lyau, and Kitt Kerr.
After getting back to the hotel, I poked my head into the concert of a Snow White musical but I'm afraid I found it didn't catch my interest, so I fulfilled the pledge I'd made to myself to actually use the hotel pool and jacuzzi. It was hard to find congenial socializing after that -- a handful of room parties, but nothing really conducive to in-depth conversation. I hung out with lurkertype (from File770) the San Jose worldcon bid party for a while, then we swung by the My Little Pony party, who were said to have amusing thematic mixed drinks (which alas were WAY TOO SWEET). And so to bed, as Pepys would say.
I was audience for a panel on "Truth in History" which discussed the importance of basing fiction on the multiplicity of historic truths (and not just oversimplified "official history" written by winners and conquerors)--not simply for ethical reasons, but because it makes for more varied and more interesting fiction. Also noted was the tendency of readers to learn their history from fictionalized versions, perhaps even more than from history texts. So the choices we make in writing versions of history can shape public understanding of that history, for good or ill.
I was a panelist for "Does that come in vanilla?" for which the panel description was: There is an inherent assumption that polyamory or homosexuality come paired with kink. Why is that and is it a stereotype worth debunking? Having dispensed with the simplistic question in the title, we had a spirited discussion of why people's images of marginalized sexualities tend to get bundled with specific communities, behaviors, or tastes, and how (or whether) outsiders' understandings can be broadened. But we also discussed bundled assumptions about sexuality within marginalized communities, and the purposes that these assumptions serve, but within the community and in negotiating the external image of the community. (If I recall correctly, I started my introduction by apologizing for all the academese I was going to use reflexively.)
I had a lovely spot of late lunch with
ritaxis getting beta-reader feedback from her, to supplement the written notes I'll be getting. Later had off-site dinner at a small, crowded but fabulous Thai place with Karen, Chaz, Brad Lyau, and Kitt Kerr.After getting back to the hotel, I poked my head into the concert of a Snow White musical but I'm afraid I found it didn't catch my interest, so I fulfilled the pledge I'd made to myself to actually use the hotel pool and jacuzzi. It was hard to find congenial socializing after that -- a handful of room parties, but nothing really conducive to in-depth conversation. I hung out with lurkertype (from File770) the San Jose worldcon bid party for a while, then we swung by the My Little Pony party, who were said to have amusing thematic mixed drinks (which alas were WAY TOO SWEET). And so to bed, as Pepys would say.
