The second day of OddCon 2012 began with a spirited conversation about steampunk. The discussion immediately delved into academic territory as the panelists debated the nature of literary canons. There was general agreement that steampunk is a very open-source canon that is open to a lot of different influences.

According to panelist Janice Bogstad, who has an impressive list of academic credentials including two Masters’ and a PhD, “Canon is not like a metal bell that prevents its constituents from touching other genres.” She even went so far as to describe George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones as a steampunk novel, though she did not elaborate on her reasons for doing so.

But although the canon is incredibly broad, there are limits. Eric Larson pointed to a recent poll on a blog that showed that the overwhelming majority of respondents did not want to see magic in steampunk novels. Gregory Rihn countered that argument by saying that steampunk often has its own form of magic. In the Girl Genius comic, the main character can bend the laws of physics with the ‘spark.’

After getting the theoretical stuff out of the way, the panel moved to the nuts and bolts of steampunk—literally. Rihn claimed that steampunk favored external combustion over internal combustion, and zeppelins over fixed-wing aircraft. “If it breathes steam, exudes steam, and goes “choo-choo-choo” when it walks, it is probably steampunk,” Rihn said.

But technical details are key. Because Jules Verne does not describe the power source of Captain Nemo’s submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, it falls into the realm of science fiction rather than steampunk, according to Rihn.

A question from the audience led to a discussion of what the ‘punk’ means in steampunk. According to Rihn, the critical element is the violation of Victorian social norms. “It involves expanding not just tech possibilities but social possibilities,” he explained. Some of the panelists saw a divide between older writers, who preferred to merge technology with social graces, and younger ones who were more interested in ‘gadgets and punk.’

After the steampunk panel, Toonari Post went to a panel entitled “Just the Facts, Ma’am,” which focused on the importance of facts in fiction. Moderator Shane McCook was inspired to put the panel together after listening to an audiobook where a character living in prehistoric Europe went out to pick blueberries, which are native to North America.

Richard Chwedyk explained that he normally does ten times more research than will ever show up in the story. When teaching science fiction writing workshops, he advises his students to provide just enough detail for the reader to make sense of the situation, without bogging them down in facts or taking them out of the story.

Chwedyk also pointed out that most experts are more than willing to talk about their work, and so are valuable resources for writers seeking to get their facts straight.

Jeannie Bergmann also stressed the importance of handling human emotions accurately. She cited an example of a romance novel where a nobleman takes a girl from an orphanage and raises her to be a proper lady a la My Fair Lady. Despite having suffered horrific abuse as a child, the girl is able to transition from victim to aristocrat smoothly. Bergmann noted that, in real life, the child would not be able to bounce back from her misfortune so quickly.

She also slammed romance novelists who write books where a ‘bad boy’ is reformed thanks to the heroine’s love. According to Bergmann, these books can encourage women to stay in abusive relationships. “Authors have an obligation to write books that won’t damage people,” she said.

Perhaps appropriately, the day ended with a panel on death in fiction. As one might expect there was a great deal of discussion as to why we are fascinated with the subject. Jeannie Bergmann noted the “dichotomy between person’s consciousness and body. Fascination with the body is an odd peculiarity of humans.”

“Death is disturbing because we don’t know where consciousness has gone,” she continued.

The conversation also covered notable deaths, including Janet Leigh’s famous demise in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Eliminating a main character a third of the way through the movie is certainly unusual, and its unexpectedness helped to make it all the more gripping. This stands in contrast to George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, where death is quite frequent and the reader knows they cannot count on their characters to survive.

Stay tuned for yet more coverage of OddCon 2012!

Eli Parke contributed to this report.

Image Courtesy of   http://odysseycon.org

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The 10th year of the annual Anime Boston Convention has come to a close, and it was the con’s biggest year yet (despite the fact that PAX East was going on at exactly the same time.) For Toonari Post,  here’s what happened on the third day including some final impressions of the con overall.

The third day had even less of a crowd than Friday, but there were still a few hundred cheerful people walking around, in and out of costumes, getting their pictures taken, and buying some last-minute merch from the Dealer’s Hall and Artists’ Alley.

The Closing Ceremonies were the main draw for Sunday con-goers, and the lines started forming an hour before the auditorium doors opened at 3pm. There was a skit at the beginning with A-chan and B-kun, the con mascots, followed by a recognition of the volunteers who had been with and helped make the con for the past 10 years.

While the names and pictures of the 10-year volunteers displayed on the projectors, the Gotta Catch ‘em All song from Pokemon began playing, and partway through, everyone started to sing along. There were some guest speakers and videos and finally the Japanese and other guests came out and walked up and down the catwalk to applause.

Before the Closing Ceremonies though, we managed to steal some time in the gaming room down the hall. Here, there were eight retro consoles set up, ranging from Atari to N64. For the first time we really got to sit down and play with, and talk to, some of the other con-goers. It’s amazing how a convention can facilitate such a level of spontaneous friendship between strangers.

We sat down next to a young guy playing Tetris Attack for the SNES and started a two-player game. As we played, almost everyone that walked by us stopped and commented on the game, how it should have had a tournament at the con, how they hadn’t played it in ages but still remembered it from childhood. When we finished with ‘Bomberman,’ we moved on to the next open console.

Next up was ‘Super Bomberman.’ We spent some time and had some fun learning what the special feature of each stage was (and usually got ourselves killed in the process). Ultimately we lost to the computer each time, but we had such a good time playing with one another that it didn’t really matter. As we played, we also extolled the virtues of these old single-button games, where the focus is on strategy, without any complicated controls to get in the way of the goal.

After that, we went over to the N64, which at that moment had no game in it. Fortunately, a girl came over shortly after with a bag of her own N64 games and a group formed to play some classic 4-player games: Mario Kart 64, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros, and so on. Everyone was so genial, it was like being amongst a group of my own friends.

We also managed to get to a few panels, most of them led by guests of the con, rather than staff. They were people who cared passionately about the subjects they wanted to speak about, such as the guy who led the Tokusatsu panel on Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and (briefly) kaiju such as Godzilla.

He and his friend, who came in a very detailed and convincing Kamen Rider costume, seemed to know the series as deeply and intimately as anyone could. As he spoke about the individual Super Sentai rangers, he did their poses and spoke their names in the deep, dramatic sort of Japanese you hear in those shows.

He had watched all the series, even if they weren’t subtitled, and seemed to identify more with Japan than North America when he spoke. I was also amazed at how vocal the fan-base of these series were. One of the girls in the audience began heckling him when he slighted her favorite season of Kamen Rider; and when prompted, part of the crowd would call out something in Japanese and do a gesture associated with one character or another.

For a first-time visitor to the Anime Boston convention, it sort of had a feeling of Disney World. Kids and adults would come and take pictures with their favorite mascots, visit all the attractions, then go back to the hotel at night. The only difference, though it’s a major one, is that everything at AB comes from the fans themselves. There is very little industry support, aside from the guests and occasional Funimation or Viz panel.

The cumulative effect is that Anime Boston is much more a “community” than big industry conventions like PAX. You may come for the first time wondering what you’ll find–what do you do at an anime convention, watch videos all day?–, and realize you’ve found a community. This is especially true if you’re in high school and have a hard time making friends there. The con is a place where it’s hard for anyone to take themselves too seriously, and the barriers between people come down.

Whether you are into tabletop games like D&D and Magic: The Gathering, or video games, or cosplay, or steampunk, or dancing, or anything else geeky, there is a community at Anime Boston waiting to welcome you like an old friend.

Image Courtesy of   pullip_junk

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