Things I Learned At Penguicon 2010: Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science Fiction

Title: Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science Fiction
Panelists: Sarah Monette, Doselle Young, Stewart Sternberg
Date and Time: Saturday, May 1, 2010; 2:00 PM

I got something completely different from this panel than I was expecting going in (although, I'm not certain what I was expecting) - it was fun either way, though, and I enjoyed it. I've seen Sarah Monette at the last three Penguicons, and she's often a very interesting panelist, so I was glad to get to see her again.

A lot of this panel focused on subcultures, rather than culture at large, which I believe surprised me. But it made sense - it's hard to see culture when you're in the midst of it. To see your culture you have to step outside of it - subcultures give people a way to do that; to view culture through the eyes of a subculture. Besides that - in order to understand culture fully, you need to know about all the facets - subcultures. It's the only way to know the whole picture, to have all the context.

Also discussed was where a non-obvious interpretation comes from, that is: biases brought to the reading will shape the interpretations that come from that. Experience shapes interpretation. You also get wider cultural meaning to bias your reading - so things take on meanings about gender identity, religion, or power reversal.

On the topic of culture most of what was discussed was that cultures repeat - but it's not always noticed. For example: Nirvana and Lovecraft deeply inspired and informed later generations of music, literature, and all sorts of facets and sides of culture; but not everyone knows what a Lovecraftian monster would be.

Finally the panelists gave some suggestions of some science-fiction informed by current subcultures or pieces of cultures: A future dystopia about gymnastics, a NASCAR-based science fiction, etc.

The best thing I wrote down from this panel is simply this: Everything has a fandom, and everything is interesting. So writing about a NASCAR-based science fiction would have a following - although it probably would not be the regular readers of science fiction.

Penguicon 2010 Posts
Character Driven Storytelling
[[Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science-Fiction]]
Methods of Life Hacking
Publicity 101
Post-Scarcity Futures