WisCon 31!

I’ve heard from WisCon Programming and I am on three panels.

Why is the Universe so damn white? (Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing SF&F)
Friday, 1:00-2:15 p.m. It’s great that there are many great SF shows on television with diverse main casts. Stargate, Firefly, Battlestar, Buffy – in each you will find ethnic minorities in major roles. However, if you look in the background it doesn’t take long to notice that even though the main players aren’t all white, everyone else seems to be. Finding a planet full of ‘white’ people is easy, but what about the planets with Black people, or Laotians, or Pacific Islanders? Then you run into the problem of how ethnic minorities are portrayed, both in terms of the main characters and the Aliens of the Week. Why is it so hard for television, which has taken the first step in being inclusive, to take that next step and actually portray a diverse Universe? Why IS the Universe so damn white and what can we do to change that?

What These People Need Is A Honky (Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing SF&F)
Sunday, 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Janine Ellen Young, Doselle Young, Naamen Gobert Tilahun, Nnedi Nkemdili Okorafor-Mbahu, M: Morehouse Lyda Tom Cruise is the Last Samurai. Kevin Costner wins the heart of American Indians with his wolf dancing. Orlando Bloom, in Kingdom of Heaven, goes from medieval England to Jerusalem to teach the Arabs how to sink wells and transport water. Etc. Is there anything that can be done about this plague of Orientalist white-guy Mary Sue-ism?

After the Empire (Reading SF&F)
Sunday, 4:00-5:15 p.m Authors such as Geoff Ryman, Ian McDonald and Barth Anderson are setting novels in countries other than the affluent West, often in a future world after the fall of the American Economic Empire. What other examples can we think of, or would like to see? Are these books done well, or are they just another form of cultural appropriation?
Moderating This One!

I’m really freaking out about them, especially the last one since I’m moderating it (at least that’s what I assume the M before my name means). It might have been a bit of folly to volunteer for panels on my first trip to WisCon but they seemed so interesting! I just need to breathe deep and start making lists of topics to discuss and such, I have two months (or close to it) so it’s a little early to freak out. Still I don’t like the idea of maybe making a fool of myself in public which is just nerves talking but still… *deep breath*

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In other news I have to revise my 15 page story for class tonight, have a midterm tomorrow in my Early Church History class & have a 4-6 page paper due on Friday for my Lesbian Literature class. Also just finish Exiles Volume 1: The Ruins of Ambrai by Melanie Rawn so there will be a review of that in the next few days.