On Sat., July 11th, attend
1. “Joanna Russ Reminiscences” at 10am,
particularly to hear stories from critic Michel Dirda and editor David G.
Hartwell; 2. “When Should We Argue with Reviews” at 11am—as a panelist, I could
bring up the back-and-forth in the Feb. 19th ed. of the New York Review of Books re. Charles Baxter’s review of The Annotated Lovecraft (S.T. Joshi
accused Baxter of a “personal animus against Lovecraft” and argues that
Lovecraft was “in touch with an extraordinarily diverse band of friends and
colleagues, ranging from… Robert E. Howard to the highbrow poet Hart Crane”; Baxter
begins his reply: “One would think, reading S.T. Joshi’s response to my book
review, that I had attacked the object of a cult” and calls out Joshi on the fact of Lovecraft’s racism, “his defense of Lovecraft’s views in his letter
is astonishing in this day and age; he quotes, with apparent approval,
Lovecraft’s suggestion of apartheid as a benevolent remedy.”); 3. at noon,
Nicole Kornherstace will read from Archivist Wasp; at 1:30 I will read from a
novel-in-progress—anyone who attends my reading gets a FREE copy of New Genre
no. 7 (while supplies last); and “The Influence of James Blish and Damon Knight
at 3pm with Karen Burnham, John Clute, Gordon Van Gelder, and Gary K. Wolf.
# # #
The Readercon program includes photographs of
Readercon participants; I was not asked to provide a photo of myself for the
Readercon program—so, I scrolled through the program PDF with some
apprehension. I hoped to find no photo. I worried I’d find an embarrassing photo.
Instead, next to my bio, is a photo of a man I’ve never seen before.
What a simple trick! By pairing my name and a few
details about my work with a face, that face becomes my own.
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