WisCon!! Room of One’s Own

by Liz Henry

I’m at Room of One’s Own and hung out talking with Debbie, Janice D, Lisa, Cyn, Betsy, Timmi, merovingian, oursin, olivia_circe, and a zillion other people I am so happy to see!! It’s all exclamation points and hyperactive exhaustion, here!

The room is packed – all the chairs are full. People are sitting along the wall.

I really like everyone’s outfits. There is a lot of decorative comfyness.

Carrie F. and Betsy are MCing. Timmi is about to read. Betsy mentions that people describe Timmi’s books in words she has to look up, like “Chiastic”. (Ha. that was me.) A guy in the back yells “Can you spell that, for those of us who have to go look it up later?” The audience spelled it in unison.

Timmi is reading a section with Martha Greenglass, a secondary character in the book, in Seattle. The city is under martial law, and the Mar’ssan have destroyed all unshielded electronic media. (“The Blanket”.) There’s only person to person communication, letters, and so on.

“A pair of guards passed within a yard of her… Martha stood frozen, pressed against the wall…”

Audience giggles at the “ALA” and then at the line, “I’ve never met anyone from the Army for the Liberation of America.” (I did not catch the joke while I read the book but when I heard “ALA” out loud I giggled because the American Library Association actually IS the core of the future revolution.)

Louise and Martha, Vee, Perette, Geneva, and others, meet in a shadowy secret spot and argue about whether the Marq’ssan are aliens or not and whether the destruction of the Dowsanto plants was real or not. They talk about fertility restoration – some of the people who want it are religious fanatics, conservatives from the pre-Executive era, and others are feminists. They discuss what should be done for the revolution. They suspect the ODS are being ordered to rape service tech women, sticking to certain geographical areas and claiming the victims are “feminists”.

(skipping ahead a bit to a scene with Kay Zeldin )

“Tucked up…. her ears roaring with the complex rhythms of the pounding surf.” Kay has an aesthetic experience with some whiskey, the ocean, a lovely blanket, and privacy. She is at Leland’s house. Kay’s dislocated feeling of watching the executives and their glee at the world in crisis. She thinks about her key insight, holding out on it.

(OMG what is her key insight? I forgot this!)

Kay tries to decipher executive Lisa Mott’s hostility. Sedgewick comes out onto the balcony.

I am having a creepy feeling hearing Timmi do Sedgewick’s voice. Ew, ew, help!

Carrie Ferguson introduces Maureen McHugh! Maureen jokes we are a room full of Hermiones. THey talked about what to do and Maureen thought “Timmi has a PRESS”. And she said “Let’s do a chapbook!” So she sent a story and then Timmi did all the work! (everyone cracks up.)

Maureen reads “In the Kingdom of the Blind”. “Benevolent Health Network” I am cracking up at “BHPDMS” and “Sanity” and all the funny software talk. The subroutines are all named after Legba, etc. BHPDMSIT.

I feel all grubby from having just got off the plane.

Every time Maureen says “BHPDMS” I start giggling. AI, spaghetti code. Funny snark at Microsoft. Genetic algorithms.

I disagree with her use of the word “codemonkey”…

It strikes me suddenly that AIs always have really cool names like “Wintermute” and never the sort of names that code usually has! I am charmed!

Big laugh from the soulful eyes of Damian the programmer dude that makes Sydney the other programmer think that he had emotional qualities…

“Although the odds are good, the goods are odd”. Hey that’s chiasmus! Or chiastic structure!

Ahahaha! I am blushing!

They argue over whether it is aware, or alive.

“Evolution: How can a hundred billion antibiotic-resistent bacteria be wrong?”

OMG this is the best story about actual programmers, ever!

“She was wearing her “If you’re really a goth, where were you when we sacked Rome” tshirt…”

“Organic systems decay gracefully” (audience member denies it; everyone cracks up)

“I would think there was something wrong with the coin, no that aliens were trying to communicate with me.”

Maureen’s phone goes off!

“Together, he and Sydney pored over the tangle of spaghetti that was Sanity.”

The conversations between Damien and Sydney just get more awesome, with the subtleties of her confidence and his and her assumptions about her ability.

A nurse shark – Sharks don’t have a neocortex. DMS swam in the data…

This really is the awesomest story ever. It’s giving me little chills!

Helen Keller! Embodiment! Wired.

*Rushing off to buy a copy of Plugged In for Laura Quilter*

- More blogging by Liz Henry at http://liz-henry.blogspot.com

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