Hi, folks! Minicon 56 is a week away. This will be my first in-person convention since CONvergence 2019, and first convention since CONvergence 2020. I am looking forward to Minicon - I get to see friends whom I don’t get to spend much time with the rest of the year, I get to go to panels and learn things, and I get to be on panels and share my knowledge and experience on subjects that I find interesting.
The adventure of cleaning up audio and improving show notes from previous panels continues in today’s episode of Justin on Panels. We are still working through MarsCon 2018, with the panel “Race and Culture in the Honorverse”. Please note: MarsCon 2018 was seven months before the release of Uncompromising Honor (HH14). Shadow of Victory (SI4) was the most recent novel in the current timeline.
Content Warning: Slavery does get discussed in this panel, and there are white men trying to whitesplain it away.
David Weber's Honor Harrington series presents a very diverse gambit of humans in a far future when race does not seem to matter as much as politics. Juxtaposed against our own realities, how does this fundamentally affect our perception of the Honorverse?
With: Justin Grays, Stephanie Stensland
There were a couple of panels at Minicon 54 that I attended and wrote up in my retrospect post. Over the years, I have been referring back to that post and telling people which panel to look at. It has occurred to me that the panels that I’ve referred to the most need their own individual posts, and so I’m reproducing them here.
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At Minicon 2019, I attended a number of fantastic panels and took some notes at most of them. These notes reflect my thoughts as the panelists were speaking, and may not align with what the panelists meant to say.
I react to the fourth episode of HALO on Paramount Plus. Although I have seen a number of negative reviews out of fandom, I am still enjoying the show. It is fun sci-fi from my point of view. There is a developed storyline, there is plot development, there is characters with individual motives, and it’s told in an entertaining manner that captivates my personal interest. In my personal opinion, it is good.
I react to the the third episode of HALO on Paramount Plus. As someone who has not played the HALO campaigns outside of HALO: Reach, I am not overly familiar with the franchise. Therefore, my expectations aren't much more than a superficial understanding of who some of the characters are and the alien design.
I find that I am very invested in the show so far - it has the kind of storytelling that I like. Instead of being a blockbuster movie from the get-go, it builds on itself. That’s the kind of stories that I like. it’s a strong start, but not the most explosive.
I react to the series premiere of HALO on Paramount Plus. As someone who has not played the HALO campaigns outside of HALO: Reach, I am not overly familiar with the franchise. Therefore, my expectations aren't much more than a superficial understanding of who some of the characters are and the alien design. Please feel free to comment with your thoughts/reactions!
Androids & AI in sci-fi disrupt the idea of a gender binary: what purpose is there for an android and/or AI to have gender? Could an android/AI be trans, gender-fluid, and/or non-binary? How will that affect how we as a society see gender as a construct? Participants: Naomi Kritzer (mod), Leigh Hellman, Justin Edward Grays, Nate Bird, Elliot Besmann
Content Warnings:
Mention of sexual harassment towards AI.
References to the dehumanization of indigenous peoples.
At Minicon 2019, I attended a number of fantastic panels and took some notes at most of them. These notes reflect my thoughts as the panelists were speaking, and may not align with what the panelists meant to say.
On the TV show The Orville, the Kaylon are currently the enemies of the Planetary Union. The Kaylon are a mechanical species who regard themselves as superior to biological species, and they sent a representative, Issac, to determine whether or not they should preserve the Planetary Union. We learn in the two-part episode “Identity” (S2, E8&9) that the Kaylon have consumed all of the land and resources of their homeworld and wish to expand into the galaxy and exterminate species that they deem to be unworthy of preservation. The thing is, though, they have made poor use of their world and still have plenty of resources left - perhaps enough to last until the stars turn to iron.
Content Warning: Rape gets brought up in this post. It is mentioned in the Hard Passes.
CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, almost 3 months ago now. I had planned on getting this post done two weeks ago as I have been trying to get posts out on a regular basis, but certain events tied up my brainspace. I’m not willing to say that I am back on track yet, but I am certainly trying. As a reminder of Day 3 (Saturday the 7th), I was on the panel “Polyamory 101” and attended “Sex in Sci-Fi/Fantasy”. For part 2, I present to you my notes from “Sex in Sci-Fi/Fantasy”.
CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, 2 months ago now. I had meant to write these posts shortly after CVG ended, but as I’ve explained in previous posts, I have been dealing with broken technology, depression, and other things that have been occupying my time. This year, the theme was “Natural Twenty: Celebrating The First 20 Years Of CONvergence” - for the full archive of all twenty years of CONvergence, click here.
On Friday the 6th, I was a panelist on the following panels: “The Orville Fan Panel” and “When is Star Trek Space Opera?”. For Part 1, I present to you the audio recording of the panel as well as my additional written thoughts about what we discussed. Listen to the raw audio recording here (I am still learning audio editing software - please excuse the sound imbalance and the occasional coughing).
If you haven't read MarsCon 2018 - Day 1 or MarsCon 2018 - Day 2 already, I would suggest that you read those two entries first. Some parts of the eight previous panels can be connected to today's panels: "Androids, AI, And Gender Theory" and "Artificial People in Science Fiction."
If you haven't read CONvergence 2017 - Day 1 or CONvergence 2017 - Day 2 already, I would suggest that you read those two entries first - the four panels that I was on, "Speculative Fiction Against Colonialism," "Avoiding Tokenism in Comics & Sci Fi Characters," "Diversity, Class Systems, and Equality in Science Fiction" and "50 Shades of Blackface," all relate to tonight's panel: "Androids, AI, And Gender Theory."
This post will be in three parts: First, a couple of definitions and points - these definitions will be without citation, as I jotted them down in a notebook for reference for the panel, though I do plan on revisiting them in a future post. Second, a listing of media that has to do with stories about Androids, AI, and/or Gender. Third, free-form notes that were taken during the panel that I plan on elaborating on at a later date.
