Science fiction and fantasy: uncovering the modern world or information, society and technology through metaphor and imagination

I finished the day by indulging myself at the science fiction and fantasy writers' panel (which was a particularly great decision as we got free books!). I am a big sci-fi/fantasy fan - it is my genre of choice and always has been. The panel of five writers (Robert Charles Wilson, Ken Scholes, Margaret Weis, John Brown and Eric Flint) each spoke about what sci-fi/fantasy means to them - the panel didn't quite live up to its grandiose title, as the authors interpretations of it were rather loose, but they were all interesting and entertaining and the session had a real community feel to it as always happens when you get a group of sci-fi/fantasy fans together - here there was a genuine and personal common interest, as opposed to a professional one, fans not professionals.

Some of the notable points made from the varying talks were:

• Writing science fiction makes you a philosopher, as it's speculative by its very nature. (Robert Charles Wilson)
• The persistence of the book and the power of knowledge is a recurring theme in sci-fi/fantasy. (Robert Charles Wilson)
• Sci-fi shows us somewhere to go, even if we may not necessarily want to go there. (Ken Scholes)
• Sci-fi/fantasy is not escapist - that's a shallow perception. It's a way of sugaring the pill, but SFF authors write about people and issues as much as any other genre author. (Margaret Weis)
• Fiction is a drug, and sci-fi/fantasy is a particularly powerful gateway drug to literacy for young people. According to a recent report from the National Endowment for the Arts, 34% of young people said they read sci-fi/fantasy, and according to sales stats and circulation data, this is the genre that is growing the most. (John Brown)
• Sci-fi/fantasy authors/readers feel compelled to justify themselves in the face of a hostile literary establishment, which is a silly notion based on the artificial and recent idea that stories about ordinary people succeeding in extraordinary situations and having happy endings are somehow not literary. Unless they're classics. (Eric Flint).

The authors were all pretty much preaching to the converted, and there was nothing mentioned that I didn't already know, but being a fan myself I thoroughly enjoyed it!