I’ll be attending Readercon in Burlington, MA next weekend (July 6-8), and I just got my schedule:

Friday 8:00 PM. Kaffeeklatsch

an intimate get-together between author and readers

Saturday 12:00 Noon.  Panel

Sense of Wonder, or Sense of Cool?

John Joseph Adams, Thomas A. Easton, Laura Anne Gilman, Ernest Lilley (M), Ian Randal Strock

Sf seeks that sense of wonder, but we think much of today’s best sf brings forth a different feeling. To some of us, stories such as those in Charles Stross’s _Accelerando_ sequence evoke a response more along these lines: “It really might be like that? Cool!” The emotion is less an awed contemplation of the universe and its inhabitants, and more the delight we have toward a new, really loaded computer, electronic gadget or online capability-what can we do with it, what are the implications? What the author shows us may be amazing, beyond present technology or knowledge, but it feels better understood and more under our control than the cosmic wonders of older sf.  Cool is more widely shared than wonder, but less, er, wonderful. Can this be part of the reason for the decline in the popularity of sf-cool can be reliably found in more places? Does fantasy supply wonder more reliably today?

I’m driving up to the con Friday morning, along with Doug Cohen, Rajan Khanna, and Jenny Rappaport. We expect to stop over at the Traveler Book Restaurant on the way, and arrive mid-afternoon sometime.

The Kaffeeklatsch is the perfect excuse to come by and say hello if we’ve never met before. So if you’re free, be sure to drop by! If that “intimate” description confuses you as to the nature of a Kaffeeklatsch, just ignore that; it’s basically going to be me sitting at a table (with coffee!) and chatting with whoever shows up. Very informal and relaxed. At least, if I understand it correctly. I haven’t actually done one (or attended one) before.