SFnal Fun

Last night’s pub meeting was one of the liveliest for a while. A good turnout of almost 20 people (though not all at the same time), and a couple of new ones too! (Well, I don’t know if you count as new if you were present when the local sf club was founded over 30 years ago, but a non-regular at least.) The library event was successful in bringing in at least one new person to check out fandom, which is great (there were two people who wanted to joint the local sf club—a pity nobody from the club was present). I hope more people will check out the exhibition at the library, because it is very nice.

The conversation flowed, and I’m sure there were many more topics than listed here, but at least some of them were: reading lists (both sf and non-sf), jobs (catching up with what people are doing), cultural history (related to environment, nutrition, and the development of humans), planning a scientific fandom excursion in the near future (more on that later), politics (a long and flowing conversation with surprisingly little argument), fandom getting older (a topic that arises every time someone in fandom falls ill), the fandom co-operation meeting at the end of the month (and arranging rides), upcoming movies (even some that were anticipated—and not with dread), and last (but not least) a long and fascinating discussion about conventions in sf storytelling that irritate people (and why) that carried on until way over midnight (not always such a good idea when you have work the next morning, but it was too much fun not to go on).

Finncon Has Program

Finncon 2009 has started listing some program items on its web site (only in Finnish so far, though).

February Pub Meeting

It’s again time for the traditional Turku sf pub meeting. Bar Bremer, on Thursday at six. Good food, drinks, nice company, and a new issue of Turu Mafia Zine. Welcome!

The Most Romantic And Tasty Finncon

In case you’re thinking of traveling to Finland for Finncon this July (and if you aren’t, you should be), here’s an additional incentive: The Times Online lists Helsinki as one of the most romantic cities and recommends it especially for the cuisine.

UniCon in Tampere

The Tampere section of FSFWA will organize UniCon on February 27. UniCon is a minicon with the theme of dreams and nightmares in fantastic fiction.

The program starts at 5 PM with an sf movie Electric Dreams from 1984. At 7 there will be a presentation about the meaning of dreams in sf, and after that there will be informal discussion about dreams and sf. The issue 1/09 of the Kosmospenaali fanzine will be published at the con.

The con is open for all interested. More information available from Markku Soikkeli.

Festival of Living Literature

On February 14 there will be a Festival of living literature in Tampere (in Sampola).

The Tampere fandom organizations (Spektre, smial Morel, FSFWA Tampere, Tampere Science Fiction Society, and the Risingshadow and Kontu net communities) will take part in the event with a joint table to introduce themselves and tell people about their activities. There will also be a couple of panel discussions with sfnal topics, and among the participants are Risto Isomäki, Johanna Sinisalo, Maarit Verronen, and Tiina Raevaara. There will also be a fandom party in the evening at Telakka.

The event is free, so go take a look if you’re in Tampere that day! If you want to have more information or help out with the table, contact Liisa Rantalaiho.

YA And Quality

Sari Peltoniemi wrote in Grafomania about her irritation with using the term “young adult” as a pejorative, often meaning naïve literature that aims purely for entertainment value (the post is not fantastic fiction–specific, but I’m linking here because a significant portion of YA fiction can be classified as sf). I have to admit that my first impression when I hear something classified as YA is also that the narrative probably is rather straightforward and the themes rather simple. On the other hand, even if that is the case (and of course it’s not for all YA literature), what’s wrong with that? And furthermore, paraphrasing Jukka’s comment on the subject, “and most of the rest of literature isn’t like this?”

The Grafomania post has generated quite a few comments, so head over there if you want to take part in the discussion!

(As a sidenote, I’m writing reviews of a couple of YA books at the moment. I enjoyed both very much, and promise to avoid characterizing them as “young-adult-ish”.)