Dressing the Parties -- Regalia and Symbolism

Adventures in eating meant I wandered into this one as one panelist was discussing how white is the color of purity.  Which apparently was about the time they stopped talking about colors.

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Ten Best Books of the Past Ten Years

Some books got mentioned.  China Mieville came up quite a bit.  Also mentioned House of Leaves, and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

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The Faust Legend

There are two main Faust works for the English speaking world:  Marlowe's and Goethe's.

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The Great Divorce

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

In which the narrator takes a bus from a dreary little town in the rain, on the verge of nightfall, and to a wonderful valley filled with greenery and lions and unicorns, and in which those who got off the train, are nothing more than ghosts.

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SF/F/H as a mirror on society

Discussion of the changes in the genres.

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My Favorite Writer And Why

Some interesting criteria.  One panelist chose Patricia McKillip on the grounds she would read a new work by her sight unseen.  Another chose James Blish because unlike, say, Ursula K. LeGuin, if he had heard that a nearby university had acquired an unpublished work or even letters by Blish, he would immediately make time to go to the university to read.

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Character And Hard SF

Does hard SF have to have cardboard characters?

Partly, of course, this is a definitional problem.

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The Heroine's Journey

Writers discussing the differences between the hero's journey and the heroine's.

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The Last Ditch

The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell

Another Ciaphas Cain book.  There are only a few points that might boggle the reader who has not read the previous books in the series, but there are some.

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