Do Not Listen to Gwenda Bond
The panel is not dead. If Gwenda actually explains what she means by such a ridiculous statement, I’ll explain why she is wrong.
For those of you who do not fritter away countless days of your lives going to science fiction conventions: a panel is a discussion consisting of a few people (usually about five) sitting behind a desk in front of an audience nattering on about something for (usually) an hour.
- 1930s NYC novel
- Admin
- Basketball
- Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction
- Best of Blog
- Bloggery
- Book challenges
- Book tour
- Cons & Other Gatherings
- Cricket
- Daughters of Earth
- Excuses
- Fans & readers
- Fashion
- Feminism
- First Kiss
- Food
- Frippery
- Garden
- Guest post
- How To Ditch Your Fairy
- Ideas
- Ironical (This is Writ)
- Last Day of the Year
- Liar
- Liquids
- Listening
- Love is Hell
- Magic or Madness trilogy
- Manga
- Mangosteens
- Musings
- New York City/USA
- Praising
- Publishing business
- RSI
- Ranting
- Reading
- Research
- Science
- Scott's books
- Search Terms
- Sport
- State of the World
- Sydney/Australia
- Team Human
- Titles & names
- Toilets
- Tour de France
- Travelling
- Unicorns
- Vainglory
- Viewing
- What's your fairy?
- Whingeing
- Words & Language
- Writing goals & milestones
- Writing life
- Writing process
- Young Adult literature
- Zombies
- Zombies v Unicorns
Categories
Archives
Kristin Says:
As someone who only attended 1/2 panel and a reading due to various circumstances — up 1/2 panel from last year by the way — I think she may just mean that cons are great even without the panels. Just a guess.
May 31st, 2005 at 9:02 PM
gwenda Says:
It’s dead, dead, deadity dead dead!* (Unless it has Maureen McHugh or Karen Joy Fowler on it… and a few other people I’m too tired to list.) I just think the panel needs a rest for a bit, so that it can evolve into a more revolutionary, less frustrating form.
Possible involving the evolution of the SuperModerator, who renders all panels great.
*You realize the whole fun of saying something is dead is that the thing being pronounced dead never really is, right? See: the novel, the short story, books, god (er), jelly shoes. Etc.
May 31st, 2005 at 11:15 PM
Shelly Rae Says:
Except I’m pretty sure that jelly shoes are dead. But Elvis is not. Nor feminism (right on sister!). Haven’t panels simply mutated into blogs, & lists, & forums (oh my!)?
Anon,
June 1st, 2005 at 1:59 AM
4. Justine Says:
And the other half is having other people vehemently insist that whatever it is absolutely is NOT dead!
5:45AM in Madison about to get a plane back to NYC. Very, very, very tired.
June 1st, 2005 at 6:43 AM
gwenda Says:
Sleep would be nice, wouldn’t it? Safe trip, dear.
June 1st, 2005 at 9:52 AM
Jed Says:
I think we should put together a panel at next year’s WisCon about whether the panel is dead or not.
Or at least a panel about how to have an effective panel.
June 1st, 2005 at 10:56 AM
Cheryl Says:
And there was me thinking that “The Panel is Dead!” was some new pop group Gwenda had discovered.
Still, Jed is right, we should discuss these things. I recommend we found a new literary movement within SF that will write fiction based on the assumptions that the panel is indeed dead. Then there will be a massive reaction against it and panels will suddenly become much better.
June 1st, 2005 at 3:49 PM
8. Justine Says:
That’s a great idea, Jed. Let’s do it! you can put in suggestions for panels for wiscon 30 here. Do it!
June 1st, 2005 at 11:59 PM
Benjamin Rosenbaum Says:
The panel has been lit on fire, blown up, qrushed into bitty pieces, and then blown up again into smithereens!
But it lives on!
June 2nd, 2005 at 12:06 PM