{"id":7752,"date":"2017-10-25T07:38:30","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/?p=7752"},"modified":"2017-10-28T11:27:54","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T19:27:54","slug":"the-bicentennial-21st-century-symposium-of-all-about-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/?p=7752","title":{"rendered":"The Bicentennial 21st-Century Symposium of All About Me."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

 <\/p>\n

\"If<\/a>

If you’d rather not go I completely understand.<\/p><\/div>\n

This feels a bit weird. Creepy, even.\u00a0 If it makes any difference, I advised them not to go ahead with it.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks from now\u2014 Nov 10-11\u2014 the University of Toronto will be hosting an academic symposium about me. More precisely, about my writing.<\/p>\n

You could even call it an international event. While U of T is providing the venue, the symposium itself is organized by Aussie Ben Eldridge, of the University of Sydney. At least two of the presenters are from the US (although one of them will be Skyping in, doubtless to avoid the mandatory cavity search that seems to be SOP at the border these days).<\/p>\n

Friday is layperson-friendly: a round-table discussion of my oeuvre, or omelet, or however you say that; a reading (new stuff, yet to be published); an interview; a bit of Q&A.\u00a0 The schedule only listed 15 minutes for drinks after that, but as Ben reminds me he is<\/em> an Australian and would never make so rookie a mistake. That 15 minutes is only for warm-up<\/em> drinking on campus, after which we retire to the Duke of York.<\/p>\n

Saturday is the academic stuff. I don’t know who’s giving what talks just yet, but apparently the titles include\u2014<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The (Grammatical) Autonomy of Angels: \u201cMalak\u201d & The Language of Logic.<\/li>\n
  • The Influence of Paratextual Reputation on Textual Authority.<\/li>\n
  • Rifters and Beyond: An (Overly) Educated Fan\u2019s Perspective.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cLenie Clarke is God\u201d: Religion & Peter Watts.<\/li>\n
  • Peter Watts\u2019s Rifters Trilogy and the Apocalyptic Tradition.<\/li>\n
  • Cyborgs, Hybrids, and Alien Others: Peter Watts\u2019s Posthumanism.<\/li>\n
  • From Simile to Metaphor: The Alien in Clarke\u2019s Rendevous with Rama<\/em> and Watts\u2019 Blindsight<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \u2014plus a couple of others yet to be finalized.<\/p>\n

    Honestly, I don’t even understand one of those titles<\/em>. Can’t wait to hear the actual talks.<\/p>\n

    I remain skeptical that my work is of sufficient influence to support such a dedicated event, especially on such short notice. I’ve been told to stop being an Eeyore, and to just get on board with the thing; the speaking slots are all filled, after all. Surely that speaks to the fact that academically at least, I do have my own Niche. What remains to be seen is whether those speakers will be holding forth to an actual audience, or merely to each other\u2014 and since they’re going ahead with it regardless, the least I can do is try and encourage some asses to find some seats.<\/p>\n

    So there it is. If you’re in town, and if you’re so inclined, I’d much rather see you there than rows of empty chairs. And to repeat: while the entire event is open to all, Friday night’s events are gonna be especially accessible to a general audience.<\/p>\n

    Also, it’s free.<\/p>\n

    Although you get what you pay for.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Update 28\/10\/2017: <\/strong>The schedule seems to have firmed up. Nine talks, four things-with-me-as-participant, eight institutions represented:<\/p>\n

    FRIDAY 10th NOVEMBER<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    1500-1515<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a0Welcome \/ Event Introduction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1515-1600<\/strong><\/td>\nRoundtable Discussion: On Peter Watts and the Science\/Fiction Divide. Allan Weiss, Amy J. Ransom, Dominick Grace, Michele Braun<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1600-1615
    \n<\/strong><\/td>\n    		Peter Watts Introduction by Michael Johnstone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1615-1645<\/strong><\/td>\nPeter Watts Reading<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1645-1730<\/strong><\/td>\nPeter Watts in Conversation with Ben Eldridge & Michael Johnstone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1730-1745<\/strong><\/td>\nPeter Watts Q&A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1745-1800
    \n<\/strong><\/td>\n    		Close \/ Drinks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1830-late<\/strong><\/td>\nSymposium dinner @ Duke of York.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

     <\/p>\n

    SATURDAY 11th NOVEMBER<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    1000-1015<\/strong><\/td>\nWelcome \/ Coffee<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1015-1145<\/strong><\/td>\nCanonical Distortions<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\nTBA: Edward Keller (Parsons New School of Design)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u201cLenie Clarke is God\u201d: Religion & Peter Watts. Dominick Grace (Brescia University College)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\nRifters and Beyond: An (Overly) Educated Fan\u2019s Perspective. Amy J. Ransom (Central Michigan University)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1145-1245<\/strong><\/td>\nNarratological Distortions<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\nFrom Simile to Metaphor: The Alien in Clarke\u2019s Rendezvous with Rama<\/em> & Watts\u2019 Blindsight<\/em>. Michael Johnstone (University of Toronto)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\nSculpting the Past: Fractal Narrative in Peter Watts\u2019 Rifters Trilogy. Devin Oxman (Concordia University)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1245-1330<\/strong><\/td>\nLunch<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1330-1430<\/strong><\/td>\nCyborgs, Hybrids, and Alien Others: Peter Watts\u2019s \u00a0Posthumanism. Clare Wall (York University)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1430-1530<\/strong><\/td>\nThe (Grammatical) Autonomy of Angels: \u201cMalak\u201d and the Language of Logic. Ben Eldridge (University of Sydney)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1530-1630<\/strong><\/td>\nThe Influence of Paratextual Reputation on Textual Authority. Michele Braun (Mount Royal University)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1630-1645<\/strong><\/td>\nAfternoon break<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1645-1745<\/strong><\/td>\nPeter Watts\u2019s Rifters Trilogy and the Apocalyptic Tradition. Allan Weiss (York University)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1745-1800 <\/strong><\/td>\nClose \/ Drinks<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This feels a bit weird. Creepy, even.\u00a0 If it makes any difference, I advised them not to go ahead with it. A couple of weeks from now\u2014 Nov 10-11\u2014 the University of Toronto will be hosting an academic symposium about me. More precisely, about my writing. You could even call it an international event. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-interface"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7752"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7767,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7752\/revisions\/7767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}