My schedule for Readercon 27, which will take place July 7-10, 2016, at the Quincy Marriott, Quincy, MA (new location):
Friday July 08
2:00 PM C Cozy Dystopia. Gili Bar-Hillel, Bart Leib, Shariann Lewitt, Kenneth Schneyer (leader), Sabrina Vourvoulias. When we think of the world of Harry Potter, what comes to mind first—the magic and childish delights of Hogwarts, with its cozy dormitories and feasts and flying lessons, or its numerous, creeping dystopian elements (even discounting Voldemort!), from the enslaved house elves to Umbridge to the Dementors, which are, frankly, the tools of a fascist state? Can we make an argument that HP is actually more like a dystopia than a fantasy? Even if we're half joking, there's still an interesting discussion here: how do these two sides of the wizarding world play off each other, and how do they compare with other dystopian YA? Maybe we need a new subgenre: Cozy Dystopia.
4:00 PM BH Integrating the Id: What Fanfic can Tell Us About Writing Sex, Sexuality, and Intimacy. Victoria Janssen, Natalie Luhrs, Kate Nepveu (leader), Kenneth Schneyer, Ann Tonsor Zeddies. Sex scenes can be difficult to do well, but when they succeed, they can be highly efficient ways to reveal aspects of character. What are some pitfalls of writing sex scenes, and can fanfic teach us how to do it well? Does a sex scene need to be explicit, and does it even need to have "sex" at all, or is the key the intensity and intimacy that we associate with sex?
5:00 PM 6 Non-Explanation in Fiction. John Chu, Scott Edelman, Kenneth Schneyer (leader), Ann Tonsor Zeddies. "Never complain, never explain," said the Lady Mendl, and "Fuck the exposition," said David Simon, "just be," but as Junot Díaz said, "Motherfuckers will read a book that's one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they think we're taking over." What are the pleasures of writing for an audience that already gets it—and the dangers of assuming they'll understand? What can you get from reading works that don't cater specifically to you? And how can refusing to spell it out bring depth to the fantastic?
Saturday July 09
10:30 AM B Reading: Kenneth Schneyer. Kenneth Schneyer. Kenneth Schneyer reads "A Lack of Congenial Solutions"
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Kenneth Schneyer 
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