S. Worthen | Weblog

Today, I went to sessions. All sorts of sessions. Two were from Worldcon's academic track, including papers on Thursday Next, Hellsing, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and nineteenth-century American uses of King Arthur. One was Jane Yolen's highly entertaining Guest of Honor speech - except really, it was a question-and-answer session. Another was on the baggage of translating science fiction and fantasy into other languages.* An evening session best showed off Worldcon's pull: Anne McCaffrey, Terry Brooks, and Terry Pratchett, all on the same panel.

Thanks to an hour volunteering at the Masquerade desk, I not only have a ribbon fluttering from my badge (a rare thing for me), but also had my photo taken - in part of a prize-winning Masquerade costume - by a press photographer from the Scottish Tourism Board.

Lunch was a low point - a tasteless sandwich with cold, dry bread, and dinner wasn't a great deal better. Socially, the day was pleasant. I ran into M.M. on the train, marahsk, avt_tor, and andromakie around the con, Torontonians all. I reunited with my opening ceremony friends for an evening of all six Star Wars movies in a bit more than an hour with Abba songs and kazoos, followed by a wander 'round of nicely-run bid parties. Using LJ names for the people at this con almost seems redundant: I'm unsure if I've met anyone without an LJ account, whether or not I ever learned their username.

* Did you know that the original French translation of Lord of the Rings was poorly translated, but well-written? The translator decided that "hobbits" must be a typo for "rabbits", and translated accordingly. In Sweden, two-ninths of the population own a copy of the first translationn of LOTR. The publishers commissioned a new translation, just to give people a reason to buy a second copy.