A Very Late Worldcon Report - Dublin 2019

I attended my first Worldcon, Interaction in Glasgow, in 2005. It was both interesting and enjoyable, although fairly expensive on a student budget. I had known about Worldcon for some time, but its return to Europe was what finally made attending seem feasible.

I would dearly have liked to follow it with Nippon 2007 in Yokohama, combining two of my greatest interests: Japan and books. Instead, fourteen years passed before I returned to a Worldcon.

I had my sights set on Loncon 3 in London in 2014, but it came too soon after the birth of my first son. The birth of my second son then ended any realistic hope of attending Worldcon 75 in Helsinki in 2017. Baby number three almost prevented Dublin 2019 as well.

We had initially planned to make it a family holiday. In the end, my wife was halfway through the pregnancy and felt that Dublin would be too much on top of the other travel we had already arranged, so I went alone.

Thursday

Because of work and the available flights, I did not land in Ireland until around 19:00 on Thursday. After an interesting bus ride from the airport and a quick detour to the hotel, I reached the Convention Centre Dublin at about 20:00.

Registration had already closed, but after several trips between floors I managed to obtain a temporary pass and attend my first panel, “Does an AI Need a Body?” Either I was very tired or the discussion was not especially memorable, because I remember little beyond the general conclusion that the answer was probably no.

That was followed by a panel about horses, apparently a recurring convention subject. It did little for me and seemed primarily aimed at horse enthusiasts and fantasy writers seeking technical knowledge.

My first evening ended without my seeing anyone I knew, although plenty of friends and acquaintances were already there. Judging by social media, most of them were either sightseeing or occupying one bar or another.

Friday

I arrived early the following morning, and registration was quick. By then, however, it was already becoming clear that although the Convention Centre Dublin was large, many of its panel rooms were not large enough.

Queues formed for most popular events. Attending one panel often meant missing the next because the queue had filled before the previous session ended. The queuing arrangements were initially chaotic, although they improved considerably and were running smoothly by Sunday.

My first programme item was a reading by Peter Morwood, where I also ran into Martin Andersson, which is always a pleasure. I had not read Morwood in years, but his Japanese-inspired Book of Years series made a strong impression on me when I encountered it in translation as a child.

I have been reluctant to reread the books because I am not certain how well they would hold up. I no longer remember what Morwood read in Dublin, but I enjoyed it and particularly remember the quality of his delivery. Not every good writer is a natural storyteller in person.

I had also considered attending “Writing Beyond King and Colony,” partly because Joe Abercrombie was on the panel, but the room was already full. I had seen Abercrombie at other conventions, where he never failed to entertain. I tried several more times to reach one of his panels during the weekend and failed every time. Such is convention life.

The programme could be frustrating. Several interesting events would be scheduled simultaneously, followed by a period in which nothing strongly appealed to me. I therefore found myself at “Fleshy Fears: Horror and the Body,” which left little impression. I slipped out halfway through and caught the second half of “The Impact of Kickstarters on the Gaming Industry.”

As someone interested in board games and Kickstarter as a phenomenon, I found that discussion much more engaging. It was my first time seeing Steve Jackson on a panel. I am not an enthusiast for most of his games, but his experience in the industry made him worth hearing. Tom Lehmann also made several interesting points. I knew less about him, despite having played some of the games he designed.

My next intended panel was “Done to Death: The Art of Killing Characters,” featuring Patrick Rothfuss, whose books I enjoy. By then I was beginning to understand that the more popular events required queuing at least half an hour in advance.

The organisers and attendees sometimes appeared to have very different ideas about which panels required the largest rooms. I missed the Rothfuss panel and, after finding another two or three rooms full, ended up at “When Good Futures Go Bad: Dystopia as Horror Fiction.” I enjoyed it, although it did not leave a lasting impression.

I ran into several other Swedes during the day, including Karl-Johan Norén and, once again, Martin Andersson. There were quite a few Swedes in attendance, but I mostly saw them in passing as people moved between panels and queues. More experienced convention-goers often spend less time in programme rooms and more time socialising, which probably explains why I did not encounter more of them.

“Is Epic Fantasy Conservative?” seemed to begin with its answer already decided and occasionally became more an exercise in criticising Donald Trump than a discussion of fantasy. That may have provided a useful opportunity to vent, but the pattern became tiresome when it recurred in other political panels. I enjoy political discussion, but a short convention panel is rarely the best format for it.

This was followed by an interview with George R. R. Martin and Parris McBride and then one with Steve Jackson. The first was funny; the second was interesting because of my interest in games and game development. I still do not understand the greatness of Munchkin, but its commercial success suggests that plenty of people disagree.

I ended the evening with “Not Beyond Tolkien.” Amal El-Mohtar was particularly memorable, and I consequently sought out other panels featuring her later in the weekend.

I still had not read her and Max Gladstone’s This Is How You Lose the Time War, despite its place on my reading list. I always seem to be several years behind current publishing, while my reading pile advances at a glacial pace—in the old sense of the phrase.

Saturday

The first panel I attended on Saturday was “The History of Tabletop Gaming,” which I found very interesting. I am probably as much a tabletop gamer as I am a reader, so I welcomed the way the convention programme extended beyond books into several neighbouring forms of culture.

This broader programming may not have been new to conventions in general, only to me after so many years away.

Most of the scientific and academically oriented sessions were held at Point Square, which made them difficult to combine with the main programme at the Convention Centre. That was unfortunate because many of them sounded fascinating.

I was particularly disappointed to miss “The Artificial Uterus in Science and Science Fiction.” Research into artificial gestation was already advancing, and any eventual technology capable of moving more of pregnancy outside the human body could redistribute some of its physical burdens and significantly alter debates about reproductive autonomy and gender equality.

I next attempted to attend a reading by Martha Wells, one of my favourite writers in both science fiction and fantasy. Unfortunately, many other people had the same idea, and I missed it.

I first encountered Wells through City of Bones, which I thought was excellent. I later found a copy of The Death of the Necromancer, the book that truly got me hooked. I loved the rest of her Ile-Rien work and was delighted by the recognition she received after the success of the Murderbot stories.

The early Murderbot books are short, fast-paced and an excellent starting point. At the time of this report, I was eagerly awaiting Network Effect, the first full-length Murderbot novel, which was due in May 2020.

My luck with favourite authors did not improve: I also missed a reading by Charles Stross. Besides writing fiction, Stross maintains an excellent blog featuring discussions of technology, politics and writing.

I briefly looked into “Authors and Their Pets” instead and was bombarded with photographs of cats. I decided to read.

Somewhere among the missed readings, I attended the Guest of Honour interview with Ginjer Buchanan. I generally enjoy these interviews, and this one was no exception, although I had not previously known much about her.

Next came “Time Travel Novellas After the End of History,” another good panel in which Amal El-Mohtar was again the participant I remember most clearly.

After that, I seem to have travelled several hours into the future myself, because I remember nothing else until “Future Financial Systems and Transactions.” It was considerably less interesting than I had hoped. Charles Stross might have been a valuable addition, given how often he explores financial systems in his fiction.

The gaps in my memory suggest that anyone intending to publish a convention report should either take notes or write it soon after the convention rather than several months later.

Sunday

I again arrived in time for the first programme slot and attended “How to Start a Podcast,” which may seem an unexpected choice. I had been following the development of podcasts for several years, particularly science programmes such as Vincent Racaniello’s This Week in Virology and Steven Novella’s The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe.

By 2019, I had less time for podcasts than before, which was unfortunate because the field appeared to be expanding while production quality continued to improve.

I had also played tabletop roleplaying games when I was younger. Actual-play podcasts offered a way to experience something similar when I no longer had enough time to participate in a regular game myself. The subject deserved a post of its own. The panel was interesting and probably useful for anyone seriously considering starting a podcast.

I had planned to attend “It’s All Gone to Shit: Grimdark Worldbuilding,” but poor queuing discipline put an end to that idea. Instead, I went to a panel where the Guests of Honour discussed books that had influenced them.

It was interesting, although I can no longer remember which books they mentioned. Perhaps some of them entered my reading pile and disappeared into it.

Rather surprisingly, I managed to enter “Getting Published and Staying Published,” the sort of panel that usually attracts an endless stream of aspiring writers. My interest was slightly different: I wanted to hear about publishing, editing and literary agents from the industry side.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden was particularly informative. The panellists did not always agree, producing some worthwhile exchanges, especially between Nielsen Hayden and Michelle Sagara. The broad lesson was that although published writers encounter many common problems, no two careers develop in quite the same way.

I then missed yet another reading, this time by Scott Lynch. Bringing my own books and accepting defeat may be the best strategy for the next convention.

As I was living in Luxembourg but had not become involved in the local science-fiction scene, I wanted to meet some of the Luxembourgish fans attending Worldcon. I spent part of the afternoon talking to Gérard Kraus, one of the organisers behind LuxCon.

At the time, LuxCon was a small but steadily growing convention with ambitions to host a future Eurocon. I was looking forward to seeing whether those plans succeeded.

The next panel I reached was “Will We Ever Achieve Sentient AI?” The participants appeared to lean towards no. There was some interesting discussion about what sentience means and whether the concept could ever properly be applied to an artificial intelligence.

I enjoy panels of this kind, but often leave feeling that the time might have been better spent reading a book on the subject. Most scientific questions are too complicated, and panels too short, to provide more than an introduction. They work best when the speakers use the limited time to explain and assess recent research rather than trying to settle the whole field.

I am not particularly interested in award ceremonies, so I missed most of the Hugo Awards.

Monday

I began Monday with a visit to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It was probably the most memorable part of the entire trip, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone visiting Dublin.

After returning to the Convention Centre, I spent some time working because I had urgent matters to complete, as always. The remaining programme contained fewer events that interested me, so this did not feel like a great sacrifice.

I spent the evening and the dead dog party talking with several fellow Swedes and an American gentleman whom my wife would probably have enjoyed meeting. She was very interested in Mr. Money Mustache, and he appeared to be a living example of FIRE—financial independence, retire early.

We had excellent discussions about politics, society and recent developments in both the United States and Sweden. Conversations like those are probably the best part of any convention, even for someone who is not naturally very social.

The obvious lesson was that next time I should spend a little more time in the bar and a little less time trying to enter every panel.

Tuesday

I ended the trip with more sightseeing, primarily a guided tour of Dublin Castle. Our guide was excellent, and the tour was well worth the time.

Then it was time to head to the airport and travel home. Fourteen years after my previous Worldcon, Dublin reminded me why I had wanted to return. The panels were uneven, the queues were frustrating and I missed many of the writers I had hoped to see. But I met interesting people, renewed old acquaintances and made new friends. In the end, that mattered more than following the programme perfectly.