Readercon 19 Notes

So this past weekend I attended Readercon. It was my third time attending; I'm not usually a con person, but Readercon is awesome. Basically, it's a convention where the panels are the point, and they're all about literature, and the literature is mostly speculative. I'm not a huge reader or writer of speculative fiction, but I've been dipping toes in each side, and there are some obviously brilliant people talking at this convention every year. I'm not going to try to list all of the people, because I will miss half, but wow. Such company.

This year's Readercon I attended a number of panels, two readings, and the Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition --- imagine approaching bad science fiction with all of the pathos and competition and hilarity of a chessboxing match or a NetHack tournament. [1] The panel selection was excellent: I often found myself interested in more than one thing going on at the same time. The con's flavor as a whole seemed maybe a little more political than normal than the past couple of years. I don't know if it was the election or what, but the riffs on the Republican Party and on religion in general (this one surprised me a little) were out in full force. I didn't particularly mind this, but it wasn't the flavor I was expecting, so it was a mite weird, and a little disappointing that a couple of panels got caught up in it. Don't let that stop you from coming to next year's, though, if you think it might be interesting --- because it's awesome.  I'm not going to write up notes on everything I saw, just most of it, for those interested or those who attended or just those who want more text to read.

( Seriously. It is SO LONG. )

[1] Speaking of which, Crawl tournament in August. For any of you who might somehow not know that through some other channel.