People Attending: James J. Walton, Monia Cellio, Dani Zweig, Mary Tabasko, Timons Esaias, Christina Schulman, Diane Turnshek, Ann Cecil, John Schmid, Lynn Cohen Kohler, Jim and Laurie Mann.
We reviewed some of the recent happenings in Philly (preliminary room allocation). There will be a PARSEC brainstorming for MilPhil on Saturday, March 10 and another one at PSFS in early April.
The last open Program Div Meeting will be Saturday, April 21 in Pittsburgh. It's the last programming meeting with the emphasis on brainstorming. Future Programming Meetings will be extremely focused worksessions and the scheduling frenzy will be by invitation only. So if you'd like to take one last crack at brainstorming, please come to the April 21st meeting.
We discussed the Programming Timeline. Ann is comfortable with the current Pocket Program timeline. In a few cases, some program items might be "prerequsites" of other times, so these related items need to be marked clearly on the schedules.
I (Laurie) had a discussion (after four tries on very staticky phones!) with the Events meeting up in Massachusetts. Events information has been rolled into the beginnings of the Schedule. I sent contact information on the Bears to Vicky Warren for the Masquerade. I still need to see if anything has been decided about the Million Wizard March, should exchange E-mail addresses with the Anime person, and should suggest that the Analog Mafia talk to Danny. By March 12, I owe Pat Vandenburg a list of recommended Hugo presenters.
Review the RFF and RFFCON1 lists for more ideas.
Ideas
Layoff horror stories
Cider Wars
"The Panel with no name"
Why Buffy is the Anti-Christ.
Why can't black writers writer black characters? This led to a long discussion on voice in writing. If you can't accurately portray members of your own culture, how can you write about an alien culture? If we can't talk to each other, how can we talk to aliens?
Notes in the margin - what kind of margin notes do people write? Do you get a second copy just for making notations?
The Andre Norton syndrome - analyzing writers who write primarily for YA instead of writing for adults.
Out of the Cardboard Box - Writing what you don't know. If we're writing about things that have never happened, how do we do it convincingly? Making convincing characters.
Tim's killing solo - long discussion on studying how few soldiers
actually ever kill each other on the field of battle. Apparently,
people in groups are more effective killers than the lone gunman.
Why if we ever run into an army that does shoot 100% of
the time. Why two guys have ICBM keys.
Autmated warfare - is it easier to do it from a screen?
Tim would like to give his speech then segue into doing
a panel on killing in warfare.
Division of futures - utopia vs. distopia. If the future is just more of the same, why bother?
Popular opinion holds and when it's wrong.
Gratuitiously made-up words.
How to make alien species alien beyond naming them with words without vowels
Most readers are stupid - Getting readers to relate to future possibilities.
May as well be from New Jersey - Why would people living in a wholly alien environment (like a neutron star) behave like people across the bridge?
How real is the game? Why are more realistic games dull? How do players' personalities impact games?
Is gaming taking over? Gaming creep in the publishing industry (Greg Costiyan)
Soap box version - responding to "Is Science Fiction Satanic?" "Since You Like science fiction, you MUST Believe in UFOS!" Skeptical Inquirer. What's the Party Line? Dealing with Mundane perceptions of fandom - possible game show?
Collaboration Workshop - do Thursday
Suppose we met aliens and they spoke in poetry? Would aliens have poetry, or is it a human phenomenon?
Language that's hard to figure out - Elgin's the Sevent Label. Are we missing some esthetic element? Missing the point in English.
What does SF stick to traditional literary forms? Are fans really not enamored of the new? Pushing the envelop with innvations on eh Web. Ulysses for Dummmies. Film. Why didn't Joseph Conrad write SF? (PNH & Hartwell)
When good typography goes bad. When bad magazines happen to good content. "Modern" magazine design a la Wired. Is there a better way to tell a story using creative typography and layout or did Bester do it first and last?
Discussing favorites - byond making lists
Poetry workshop run by Timons Esaias. Write to Mary Turzillo about her poetry slam.
Stanley Schmidt's alien language panel
Bad '60s cartoons - bad movies? (Andrew Adams)
Ostracism panel.
Concom survor game
Junkyard Wars - could be done in Franklin Hall in the morning since the concert space is only used later for music
SF Ben Franklin Might Have Known - deBergerac's Moonflight featured many different ways to go to the moon, More's Utopia
NASA Panel - What Kind of Fool Am I?
Weird Space Drives - Richard Garfinkle and Jeff Noon
Do SF writers need groupies? Entourages? Fanatical fans?
The Now Obligatory Harry Potter Panel
Imaginative Writing