Late September 2002 - and Sydney literary SF&F fandom appeared to
be in the doldrums. Friday September 20: meeting of Sydney Futurians.
Total attendance: 4. Saturday September 21: social gathering of Sydney
Southern SF&F Group. Total attendance: 7. Two people (me 'n GPD)
went to both. I've had no reports from the last Infinitas group meeting.
Enter Kim Selling and Lilla Smee with "Fantastic Fictions", a one day symposium, held at Sydney University Women's College on Friday 27 September.
Right from the kick-off this was different. It was not con or a
"day with" some famous name person. It was a symposium, an event which
one associates with the cloisters of academia. It was held within the
distinguished and venerable walls of the University of Sydney Women's
College. Moreover, it was on a Friday, when fans are at their jobs and
writers are at their day jobs.
Would anyone come? The question obviously worried the two organisers, but they went ahead anyway.
It was beyond all reasonable doubt a resounding success. Attendance
could not have been better. They just fitted the 70 or so starters
comfortably within the college's main common room. More would have been
too many, less too few. With the facilities of the college at their
disposal, the day's creature comforts were positively luxurious
compared with many a con or similar event. To top it off, for the $30
or less (for early payment or concession rates) that the day cost, the
attendees were treated to a happy hour at the end of the formal
proceedings.
There were five distinct sections to the symposium: a plenary paper,
two sessions of papers by students, one session of presentations by
authors and a round-table discussion by a selection of the
contributors. These sessions were broken up by morning and afternoon
teas and lunch.
Firstly the two charming convenors welcomed the attendees and then
introduced Professor Margaret Clunies Ross of the University's Centre
for Medieval Studies to formally open proceedings. Although she said
relatively little, Prof. Clunies Ross appeared friendly and accessible,
an encouraging start.
Then came the Guest of Honour, Professor Brian Attebery, of the
Department of English, Idaho State University, with the plenary paper.
This was titled "Exploding the Monomyth: Myth and Fantasy in a
Postmodern World". Presumably he is in Australia for Sabbatical or a
holiday, or else attending some other event(s), since the organisers
budget could not possibly have covered his travel and accommodation
costs. Whatever his reasons for being in Sydney, his presence was
indeed fortuitous, since he got straight down to the business of myth
and fantasy in a way that was both academic and pragmatic.
Hopefully a full text, and certainly a precis, of his talk will be
available soon. The talk was for me a light in dark places. He avoided
the questions of whether modern fantasy is boring, repetitive, way too
long etc and concentrated on its relation to myth. I got the impression
that myth is the appropriate starting place for all fantastic fiction
and that it is as vital to the social side of humanity as science
fiction is to the scientific and technical. He was not scornful of any
genre or author but he highlighted good elements of fantasy writing in
a way that would hopefully allow the discerning reader to judge
accurately for themselves as to the quality of a given work.
The organisers of symposia often do not allow time for questions after
a plenary paper, but in this case there was a short question session.
While not long enough to really explore the subject, it was
nevertheless a good starter and gave the interested listener some
encouragement to approach the author after the formal session.
Morning tea was not just tea and coffee with biscuits - it included
cakes, sandwiches and fruit, all in the delightful old world atmosphere
of the college's dining room. Half an hour was allowed for this and
afternoon tea, and an hour for lunch, giving plenty of time for
informal nattering.
The second and third sessions were similar, each comprising three
students who delivered papers on some aspect of their work. These
(postgraduate - one or more may have been postdoctoral fellows)
students came from universities around Australia and presumably they
paid their own ways there, unless scholarships they were on allowed for
their travel to be funded. After the three presentations, a time (20-30
minutes) was allowed for questions and discussion. I won't attempt
reviews of each paper. They convered for the most part quite specific
subjects and without a detailed knowledge of the subject, which usually
meant having read one or more specific books, it was difficult to
follow the paper. Moreover, they tended to read quite quickly. The
accoustics were such that speaking directly into the microphone was
absolutely necessary for the sound to carry throughout the room, and
not all of them did this. Despite the shortcomings, the papers yielded
some spirited discussions. One paper was by Justine Larbalestier, whose
book launch the previous Wednesday was covered by Garry Dalrymple. She
spoke better than most if not all the others and addressed a rather
more general topic: that of researching F&SF.
The two sessions of paper presentations were separated by lunch, a
sumptuous affair especially with the environment of the college dining
room. After the second paper came afternoon tea, also with luxury
trimmings of cake, scones and fruit.
The final sessions comprised firstly a presentation by three well known
authors: Terry Dowling, Sophie Masson and Scott Westerfield. This
session was chaired by the equally well known author Sean Williams, and
the convenors are to be congratulated for bringing these authors
together with little or no apparent cost to the attendees. Each was
interesting in their own way but the highlight for me was Scott
Westerfeld who got down to specifics and described the basis for a
trilogy - a young people's fantasy - that could be taken further to
become a TV series. It was based on the premise that an extra,
heretofore unknown, hour of time existed within each day. It was
imperceptible to all but people who had been born preisely on the
stroke of midnight. These and these alone perceived the passage of an
extra hour that was inserted into the normal 24 hours every midnight.
During this hour, time was frozen for all other things, animate and
inanimate. What this small select group did during this hour was the
basis of the stories. My question: "how was it known to be an hour?"
was easily answered by the author with the simple device that for any
of these specially privileged people a watch on the wrist kept "their"
time (meaning of course that it would gain an hour each day but I
didn't get to press that point).
Following this session there was a general round table discussion on
all the topics of the day. Talk was lively and no doubt would have gone
on longer, but the room had to be vacated by 6 pm so the two convenors
thanked all the participants and the (obviously enthusiastic) audence
and invited us to join them for drinks in the nearby Fairfax common
room. I left, tired but happy, around 7 pm.
It was generally agreed by the attendees that this symposium, by the
name of symposium or any other name, was a wonderful happening and a
power of good for local sf&f on both the writer and the fan side.
It has been tentatively considered as a future annual event. Even
should this not come off, the increased interest in and awareness of
SF&F, particularly the literary side, will surely have beneficial
effects in an area where beneficial effects are sorely needed. It was
supported by the Department of Medieval Studies and the Research
Institute for Humanities and the Social Sciences (RIHSS) at Sydney
University, plus the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative
Association and the Galaxy Bookshop, who presumably donated the calico
bags that all attendees received. David Linton of Galaxy brought a
selection of books for sale and throughout the symposium he held
station for buyers at a makeshift stall in the college foyer. He
appeared to do a reasonable trade. One book (by Raymond Feist - signed)
was offered as a door prize - the lucky winner was Rod McLeod.
I would like to offer my sincere congratulations and thanks to Kim Selling and Lilla Smee for organising this wonderful event.
For information on this symposium, including summaries and perhaps full texts of papers, keep checking http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/rihss/fantastic.html.
My personal home page: http://members.optushome.com.au/krenon
My Australian SF&F home page: http://members.optushome.com.au/aussff
The Bullsheet:
http://members.optushome.com.au/aussff/bullsheet.html & http://www.geocities.com/edwinafan/