Disaster at Lunacon!

TOF was "special guest" at Lunacon this past weekend, and very special he was. He got to wear a ribbon like unto a prize steer at the stock show and had melons placed under his arms. In return, he sat upon certain Panels, picked a Winner at the Art Show, and started a presentation on THE GREAT PTOLEMAIC SMACKDOWN. 


"Started" because about halfway through the cord on his microphone knocked over a cup of water onto the keyboard of his laptop. Ah, that it would have been his lap instead! Alas! TOF watched in horror as his screen did Unpleasant Things before going dark. Taking with it all of TOF's ouevre, including WIP. 

Hence, he is at this very moment appearing courtesy of the Incomparable Marge and her desktop, somewhat awkwardly channeling though alternative channels and sitting upon a less comfortable chair, clacking upon a differently spaced keyboard.

The bad news is that TOF must share this space with Others. The good news is that he backed up his SKIFFY folder about a week ago, and so his ouevre is recouevred. In a few days he expects the Geek Squad to contact with the autopsy results. Can Mr. Laptop be resuscitated? Inquiring minds want to know.  There was a slideshow on the desktop, and there were a host of reference tabs bookmarked for his various WIPs that are missing from his backup. 
+ + +
In judging the Art Show, TOF has never seen so many paintings of cats in his life. There were also dragons and Stuart Little-like mice. Only one work had an SF theme, and so received TOF's accolade. Ah, science fiction, how ye have fallen!
+ + +
Passing by a room in which filk was being committed, TOF heard someone singing to the tune of the old IRA ballad "A Nation Once Again" lyrics with the tag line: "a pagan once again." TOF hurried past lest the Wicker Man or some similar pagan revival be in the offing.
+ + +
TOF had dinner with his Secret Agent, who passed on some good news regarding the Russian edition of THE JANUARY DANCER.
+ + +
Most of the panels were in their usual anarchist/con mode, meaning that little of substance was said. Everyone was mounted on their individual hobby horses, ready to gallop. Now some of the horses were fine steeds indeed, don't take TOF wrong, but a con panel+audience is very much like a communal example of ADHD.
+ + +
Alternate histories not based on battles. Greg Feeley took the stance that battle-based alt hist is morally repugnant since it most usually takes the form of the Confederates or the Nazis winning their respective wars. TOF can certainly see where he's coming from, and Greg made his case well, but I think in many cases such alternaties are cautionary tales rather than wallowing in a sort of para-nostalgia. The real problem is that battles or wars are the historical events that most readily lend themselves to developing alternatives, and the Civil War and WW2 are the ones that "need no introduction" to most readers.

While it is straightforward to pick a point at which a battle was won or lost (though less easy than some writers seem to think) it is less straightforward to alter some other, less specific thing than a battle. History happens for a reason, so when I tried to generate a 14th century scientific revolution in Quaestiones super caelo et mundo, I ran into the problem that there was no particular event that I could tweak to do so. Can we hasten the tide or hold it back?
+ + +
Character building. There was a nice discussion on how to construct characters. Do you use your friends? Is a well-constructed character the same as a "memorable" character? Does giving the character a "tic" (like Nero Wolfe's agoraphobia or his love of orchid-culture) constitute characterization? Discussion was diffuse and wandering, but mostly useful and on-topic.
+ + +
Rule??? What Rules???  It is a conceit of the Late Modern Age that there are no "rules" for writing. This is a great comfort to those who don't know them. It does no good to point to those who violate the rules successfully, for it was precisely their mastery of the rules that allow them to break them successfully. Playing tennis is not actually breaking the rules of golf, TOF pointed out, and many of the great transgressions are actually examples of writers playing a different game. Nor must we confuse genre conventions with rules of good writing.  How many times has George RR Martin killed off a main character? Yet no one can say he does not follow the rules of writing a story of accomplishment. TOF suggested that "rules" in the context of writing be thought of not in the sense of laws and regulations but in the sense of carpenters' rules and straightedges. These are guides to keep the writing straight.
+ + +
Magic and Religion. This was a complete mish-mosh and consisted mainly of a couple of panelists demonstrating their mastery of the technical terms of heterodox religions and making much of superficial similarities among different traditions. TOF pointed out that A and B might perform act X with totally different intentions, so the survival of practice X does not mean a survival of A's worldview.