This is not a con report

No, really, it's not, or not a terribly organized one, anyway. I was a bad academic and took very few notes, and given the general lack of sleep, my recollections are not their sharpest. However, some general impressions would not be amiss.

I had a blast, and hung out with too many cool people to list (because if I try I know I will forget someone, and then I will feel bad). Much pimping was done, and the Good Crack (aka, the comics that have been more places than I have) is now in the hands of meri_oddities. I am pleased. Much Bat discussion was also had, with many a person, although not, alas, with maygra, whom I barely saw despite sharing a room with. Someday we shall actually sit down and talk story. I am frankly kicking myself for not having proposed a Batman panel, or at least a comic book one, given that everywhere I turned, there seemed to be someone saying she was a fan.

Much tequila was also consumed, but we won't go into to that.

And, in no particular order, .

Your Kink, My Squick
This was a fun panel, although I didn't have any real insight on the topic. I am again struck by how often people proclaim that they'll read anything if it's well written, but won't read even their deepest kink if it's not. Dude, count me in with people who freely admit to reading mediocre writing if it jumps up and down on my buttons.

Defending Slash: Threats Foreign and Domestic
Okay, here is where I sigh. I had a fabulous time at this panel, and I thought it was well and truly interesting and that some really good points were raised. That said: I was the person who brought up Bible slash, and writing slash about children's books (I was actually talking about Narnia, not Harry Potter), and I don't think a single person there thought I meant we should stop those evil people from writing those evil things. In case anyone is actually wondering, the relevant point was this: that these are things likely to give an extra wig-factor to an outsider who stumbles across them, and could possibly wig people in a way that slashing Jack and Daniel would not, and so perhaps we should acknowledge that and possibly think of intelligent, thoughtful responses in the same way we have thought of intelligent, thoughtful responses about slash itself.

Heroes, Sidekicks, Antiheroes, and Fannish Inequities
Another interesting panel, one that has me seriously pondering my own sidekick preference. Actually, a thought I had after the panel was how much of it could simply be physical: heroes are generally cast (or in the case of comics, drawn) in a particular physical type (tall, more broadly muscular, square-jawed) that isn't my own personal taste. This bears more pondering.

Beyond Copyright: Ownership and Plagiarism
This panel was simultaneously interesting and a little frustrating for me. I thought some really, really good ideas were raised, but I don't know that we spent enough time sorting out how the different media affect the questions. Personally, I think that writing an unauthorized sequel to someone's story, or even taking the story idea and recasting it, are vastly different things than taking someone's art or vid edit. For the former, I generally think the writer need only acknowledge the original. The latter absolutely requires permission, and much of this comes down to the difference in ability to make it clear whose work is whose. That said, elke_tanzer looked truly cute in her anime dress.

Critique Workshop
Co-ran it, thought it went well. Many people talked, so I had to do very little work. This always pleases me.

Should Subtext Become Text
A very fun panel, out of which came what I thought was a fairly valuable idea: a middle ground between subtext and text, which might be called intentional coding – that is, when things in the text are fairly obviously intentional but "safe" references to queerness. I also liked the notion (okay, it was mine) that genre texts can get away with this coding more easily because they deal with things (vampires, superheroes, aliens) that are somewhat inherently queer, and thus the coded things slip by those who don't want to see them. That said, the resounding answer to the title question was "No," with a few dissenters.

No One Owns a Fandom
Another interesting panel, although a bit frustrating at times. It was the second time in one day (the first being the Beyond Copyright panel) that the, "Why do you care?" argument came up – the idea that people were silly to let things like a new popular pairing seducing away all the good writers, or a take on the characters they don't agree with becoming the dominant interpretation, get to them. And I could only think…dude, I'm a fan. If I didn't care well-nigh obsessively about my texts and my fanfic and my fellow fans, would I have spent something like $800 being here this weekend? Still, again, good points, and I found it really cathartic. It did once again bring up to me how slippery ideas like being in a fandom at all are.

Age: Just a Number? Fandom and Age of Consent
You know, of all the panels I expected to get actually mad in, this was not one of them. Actually, the conversation on slashing underage characters went very well, and raised some good points. It was when we got to underage slashers that I got a little annoyed. I am, for the record, completely in agreement that the idea that people under 18 can't handle slash at all, much less NC-17 slash, is fairly silly when they can find things just as racy in Borders. I don't believe in password protecting sites (although I recognize it as a person's prerogative). The one list I co-run doesn't even require an age statement (although let's face it: anyone coming to FCA-L looking for porn is in for a disappointment). And I'm all for challenging the laws and social consequences that make such things problematic. That said, if a minor does not understand that those laws and consequences exist, and more importantly, that if they fall, they will fall on the adult who is knowingly providing explicit erotic to a minor, we're back to not making the case for maturity, here.

Fandom at the Movies
A far calmer but really, really interesting panel. One of the things we discussed was how some movies by their very nature close off the possibility of fanfic, and [Unknown LJ tag] and I talked about it more on the shuttle ride to LAX: that movies tend to be contained plots which are also extraordinary events in the characters' lives rather than the "episode in the life" nature of TV shows or comics. So often the resolution leaves the characters in such a dramatically different place (like, say, death) that extending beyond them was difficult.

That's pretty much that. I didn't attend any panels Sunday except the Vid Review, which was very interesting but about which I don't have any real comments. I did duck in on Escapade: The 20-second elevator question, in which funny stories were being exchanged.


So, that's my con not-really-a-report. I miss everyone already, and you must all come to Vividcon so I can see you again.