So, Dragon Con. How can I describe it to those who haven't ever been? It is a weekend long gathering of nerds and geeks and generally weird folks to talk about super heroes, science fiction, comics, gaming, goth culture, British humor, Joss Whedon, Steampunk, Star Wars, Star Trek, young adult literature, Dr. Who, hobbits, and costuming. Your time there is about equally divided between talking about and listening to talks about your favorite books, movies, and TV shows and wandering around gawking (admiringly or critically) at people's costumes, boobs, and sarcastic T-shirts. The panels ranged from the academic (Jungianism in Dollhouse) to the practical (making leather costume armor) to the ridiculous (who would win in a battle between unicorns and zombies?). Basically, it is the most fun thing ever.
Since some of you (bless your hearts) have never been to Dragon Con to see the wonders of it for yourself, I thought I'd give you a little tour through my weekend.
On Thursday afternoon, Aaron, Miranda, and I went down to the Sheraton hotel in downtown Atlanta to get our badges. We stood in line for 4 hours. It made me hate hobbits and Dr. Who and storm troopers and even Jane Austen. It made me hate everything and everyone. Especially Danny, who walked right past our line (for people who had the foresight to preregister) and buy his stupid badge in 15 minutes. Next year, I will remember to procrastinate and generally be a slacker and be rewarded by the universe with a 15 minute line.
This year is the first that Aaron and I have stayed at one of the conference hotels; in the past, we have commuted down each day from Marietta. When we checked into our hotel on Friday, I had the most wonderful feeling of calm because I knew I could escape for a while into cool and quiet anytime I needed a break. I also loved knowing we could stay out late and not worry about driving home.
My first session on Friday was "Young Adult Books You're Gonna Love." It was awesome. My favorite thing about the young adult lit track is that is heavily populated with middle-aged, well-read librarians. Two of these librarians had a power point presentation on books that have recently come out or are due out this year. I left with a huge list of recommendations, including the first book in the new series by Rick Riordan (author of the Percy Jackson books). His new series tackles Egyptian mythology, and being an obsessed fan of Ancient Egypt, I can't wait to read it.
Next, I went to a science talk with Aaron on the beginnings and probable ending of planet Earth, and it was boring in an extreme way. How anyone could make oceans of lava and our Sun's future supernova boring is beyond me, but this guy totally did it. So instead I went to lunch with a group of friends.
After lunch, I attended a panel in the Whedonverse track about Dollhouse. The panel was lame, as was the show. Mostly, they made a lot of excuses for why people didn't like it (it was too intellectual, network TV viewers are all stupid, etc). I did not tell them that the show kind of sucked, except once it was canceled, and then it picked up only because the plot intended for several seasons was the right amount of action for about 5 episodes.
I went from there to my new love, the Brit track, for a panel on British science fiction literature. Apparently, not only are Brits smarter than us, but those who love British stuff are smarter too. The people on the panel were lovely and bright and funny. I hadn't read a lot of what they talked about (I went for the talk about Sherlock Holmes), but I intend to read some H.G. Wells and H. Rider Haggard (who is, coincidentally, a favorite of Amelia Peabody Emerson). Also on my list is C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy.
After this I was tired, and that is a lame excuse for missing singing in the Tolkein Elf Choir, I know. I am sure I would have loved it. Instead, I got together with friends and talked over the panels we had attended that day. Aaron and I went off to park the car at a less expensive overnight lot, and after, we drank (read: I drank and Aaron fetched me drinks.) and costume watched.
On Saturday, we slept in. Then I donned my "Jayne Austen Book and Gun Club" outfit (the motto is: Pride and Extreme Prejudice) and headed out to lunch to be admired. Hardly anyone had any idea who I was, but the people who did were REALLY excited. :)
Now in a very literary mood, I went to a session called "The Demonization of Traditional Rhetoric in the Buffyverse." It was a lot of feminist rhetoric, which annoyed me slightly and Aaron a whole lot. He is not so used to navigating around the piles of poo which most academic papers contain. I was able to enjoy the questions the presenter asked, even if her answers weren't my answers. There were some interesting rhetorical moments, particularly in Season 3 of Buffy, which I may think about more. Maybe next year, I could present an academic, peer-reviewed paper (which this was) at Dragon Con.
Next I went to a wonderful dramatization of the part of
The Lord of the Rings where the hobbits encounter Tom Bombadil and Goldberry presented by the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company. The man who read Bombadil had an awesome white beard and sang the songs with a lovely tenor voice. My only criticism was that it was too short. I wanted more, more, more.
My next two panels were in the young adult track. The first was on how young adult literature might be adversely affecting young girls' ideas about love. It was basically a wonderful bitch session about how Edward Cullen (from
Twilight) is a big ole stalker and how we hoped girls weren't thinking it's okay for their boyfriends to disable their cars so that they can't see their friends or watch them while they sleep without their permission. I made the point that our society was rife with bad images of love long before
Twilight, and we all hoped that girls would read it and like it and move on back into reality.
Next was "Freaks and Geeks in the Potterverse," which was a lot of fun. Basically, the panelists and the audience talked about all our favorite outcast characters from Harry Potter. We sang the praises of Luna, Neville, Dobby, Hagrid, Lupin, and Snape. One girl talked about poor freaky Lord Voldemort, and we all thought she was extra weird. It was so appealing to talk over all these characters, mostly, I think, because we can't stand it that the books are over and there will be no more geeky exploits.
After this panel, I went to dinner with friends and admired their costumes. I was so tired (and honestly kind of disappointed cause I wasn't having the fantastic time I had been planning) that I went to bed fairly early while Aaron went out to look at costumes and hang out with our crew.
The next morning, after a long bath, I was feeling much refreshed. I dressed as Dobby the House Elf, knowing I would be going to the Yule Ball (for, as Prof. McGonagall and the organizers of the Ball say, some "well-mannered frivolity").
My first panel on Sunday was the one I had most looked forward to and the best one of the whole Con. It was a discussion of the personal and professional relationship of J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis. I just loved it. One of the panelists grew up with a man whose father had been in the Inklings group with them, and she had heard many stories about their pub nights and their writing group. There was an academic who researched them, an expert in the mythology of England, and a super excited Tolkein/Lewis fanboy. They talked about the writing group and the men's impact on each other's writing, about Tolkein's part in Lewis's conversion back to Christianity, and about their friendship and its cooling. I learned so much, and now I want to read the book
The Inklings.
That session had me bouncing to my next with the characteristic happiness of Dobby. This next session was two academics presenting peer-reviewed papers on Joss Whedon's work. The first was an analysis of the Jungian idea of self-actualization and identity construction in Dollhouse. It was very good, but nothing compared to the next. The scholar showed the clear influence of Satre's existentialist philosophy in Buffy and Angel. The case he made was stellar, and his presentation was clear and interesting. Yay, I thought, Sunday is rockin good.
More literature was to come. The next session, again in the Brit track, was about Shakespeare's influence on British media. The panelists talked about their favorite adaptations, about cross casting (men playing women or women playing men), and about the high quality of the Shakespearean-trained actors in British movies and TV. The audience was half English teachers and half actors, and we had a grand time.
At this point, all my copious amounts of literary energy was expended, so I needed a break to read and rest my mind. I intended to give blood at the Con, partly cause it's a nice thing to do and partly cause you get a rockin good shirt with a glittery red dragon on it. So I took my break waiting for my turn to give blood. It took several hours (lots of people wanted that shirt!), but I hardly noticed the time pass as I explored the tombs of Amarna with Emerson and Peabody. They had to poke me twice (apparently my right arm has no veins of any kind), but I managed to get that shirt.
Next was a filking concert. Filking is when you make up funny songs about geeky topics. I do it all the time in an informal way. At Stoney's Pub, whenever I have had a leetle too much to drink, I play the one chord I know on the guitar (G) and make up crazy songs. At Mini-Con, I did a great one that managed to incorporate the Ground Zero Mosque, circumcision, and the analytic/synthetic dichotomy. This guy's songs were lame, but at least he did know more chords than I do.
Though the concert was disappointing, it planted the seed for a fabulous idea. Miranda and I are going to do a series of filks to popular hip-hop songs. We have already come up with a line or two of a song about the rings of power set to Beyonce's "Single Ladies." "Gin and Juice" by Snoop Dogg is going to turn into a song about Harry Potter, Quiditch, and "sippin on butterbeer." When we make fabulous music videos with hobbits and wizards and men in Utilikilts as our "flyguys," we'll let you know where you can watch them.
We left the concert super early, as it sucked, and went to the Yule Ball, which turned out to be the best thing ever. On the way, I ran into Ben Franklin! I shrieked and ran to get my picture with him. I actually shouted, swear to God, "Ben Franklin! Founder of our Country! Can I get your picture?" He seemed to be surprised that I was shouting at him and not at a girl dressed as slutty Iron Man with her boobs hanging out, and he was super nice. We even discussed Franklin's inventions for a minute.
Once we got to the Yule Ball, I got a glass of wine. We milled around, looking at costumes. There was a Luna Lovegood with a huge lion's head on her hat, tons of Snapes, Bellatrixes (or should it be Bellatrices?), a man dressed as a wanted poster for Sirius Black, and a fantastic Delores Umbrage. My highlight was getting my picture taken with the entire Malfoy family stomping on me and kicking me (I was dressed as Dobby, as I hope you recall). The Potter fans are a rowdy bunch, and we danced and danced to all kinds of 80s music. I also got my picture taken with Albus Dumbledore, which felt like a solemn moment for real, even though I knew it wasn't really him.
Afterwards I fell into bed, thinking of how Sunday was the best day in the world.
Monday, things were mostly over. I went to one session about the Angel episode "Orpheus," but none of our hearts were in it, not even the panelists. Dragon Con just felt kind of done. We went out to dinner with a group of friends to debrief the whole Con experience.
So, wanna come next year? You know you do.
