THE FANTASTICON 2018 PROGRAM BOOK

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This is the official Program Book for Fantasticon 2018. It has been sent out electronically to all registered members of the convention. It forms part of The Membership Packet, also containing the official poster, the handy folder with the program overview, and the New Nordic Steampunk Anthology - based on the open writing competition we did in connection with Fantasticon 2018.

Find us here: Homepage: www.fantasticon.dk / Tickets at: www.enkelbillet.dk/fantasticon / Social Media: www.facebook.com/fantasticonDK / photos, reviews, comments at #fantasticonDK

Indhold Welcome to the party! ...... 3 What is Steampunk? – A short definition by Knud Larn ...... 5 Kostumedrama og samfundskritik - Lidt om steampunk af Niels Dalgaard ...... 6 Jules Verne og Dampen – en refleksion af Bjørn Larsen ...... 9 Buy Books! - By the Guests of Honor! ...... 13 Events not to miss this year! ...... 14 Titanic! - A short story by our GoH Lavie Tidhar ...... 16 Con-committee 2018 - Those who made it happen: ...... 20 The steampunk classics – what to read first? ...... 21 Steampunk på dansk – en oversigt af Lise Andreasen ...... 22 Buy MORE Books! – We present SF BOK & Fantask ...... 23 Hvorfor skrive Steampunk – et interview med Billy O´Shea ...... 24 Karl-Johan Norén – our Scandinavian FILK singer! ...... 25 What happens at Fantasticon 2018? ...... 28 Den første danske tema-specifikke steampunkantologi! ...... 31 Filigree and Ice, Ash and Atoms - A short story by Edmund Schluessel ...... 32 Steampunk Film – en gennemgang af Tue Sørensen ...... 36 Steampunk Spil – et eksempel af Klaus Æ. Mogensen ...... 39 Steam Market - what you may find here… ...... 41 Untitled – An exclusive story excerpt by our GoH Jeannette Ng ...... 42 The Fantasticon 2018 Code of Conduct ...... 46 The list of members 2018 – as per August 9th 2018 (63 registered members)...... 47

© All Rights Reserved 2018. Version 2/12.08.2018. Please note that this pdf. (aka The Fantasticon 2018 Program Book) is only intended for registered members of Fantasticon 2018. All contents are copyrighted by the individual authors. When no author reference is given, assume that the copyright belongs to Fantasticon. No part of this book, or the entire book, may be republished, stored, or shared in any way outside the members of Fantasticon 2018. Edited by Knud Larn; Front page by Manfred Christiansen.

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Welcome to the party!

It is time - once again - for the yearly Danish Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror Convention in Central Copenhagen, Fantasticon 2018. For the 15th time we will gather fans, makers, writers, artists, and scientists for a three- day gathering with exhibitions, panels, talks, workshops, and award ceremonies. As always we strive to present both current developments in the genre(s), as well as providing targeted insights into the many aspects of our favorite pastime! This year we want to look closer at Steampunk, one of the more vibrant children of the Cyberpunk revolution. For the un-initiated, we give a slight presentation of steampunk basics in these pages. However there will also be many program items not related to our theme, for instance will we be looking at several new Danish genre-books published here in 2018. As we have many foreign guests, and as most Danes read English-language genre books anyway, about 2/3rds of the program will be in English, the rest will be in Danish.

This year, due to a generous sponsorship from Science Fiction Cirklen, we have been able to invite two Guests of Honor:

Lavie Tidhar (IL) - Winner of the 2012 World Fantasy Award, the 2015 Jerwood Fiction Prize for Best British Book, and the 2017 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

We will be talking with him about novels like THE BOOKMAN TRILOGY (2010, 2011, 2012), OSAMA (2012), THE VIOLENT CENTURY (2013), CENTRAL STATION (2015), A MAN LAY DREAMING (2017), CANDY (2018).

In a separate interview, we will talk with him about The APEX WORLD SF Project – a series of anthologies presenting non-anglocentic genre fiction in English. A fifth volume is currently being published in 2018.

Jeannette Ng (HK) - Her debut Victorian fantastic novel UNDER THE PENDULUM SUN (2017) is nominated for this year´s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. It is that good! We will naturally talk to her about this exiting novel about missionaries in Africa, magical kingdoms, a pendulum sun, and Victorianism. As well as what we can expect from her upcoming work(s). You can read an exclusive preview elsewhere in this program book!

Jeannette Ng is also an ardent cosplayer, blogger, and twitters a lot about genre fictions. I am sure these elements will come up during the con. Do Note: Jeannette Ng will lead a workshop of cosplay, from selecting/making costumes to setting hair, and she will teach the participants easy tricks to set their hair like a pro. If you are into cosplay, you REALLY should participate in this workshop!

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Special Guest – LUX ARTIS (PL) Steampunk are many things. The esthetics of steampunk reaches into visual arts as well. Therefore LUX ARTIS will be our special guest this year. LUX ARTIS is an art publishing house promoting artists who are into fantastical and surreal art.

Major Polish fantastic artist Jarosław Jaśnikowski heads the portfolio at LUX ARTIS, but several other talented painters have joined them as well. LUX ARTIS will create a sales exhibition at Fantasticon 2018, focusing on steampunk art.

Other Program Participants Besides these highlighted guests, that you really should make sure to meet at the con, there are all the other program participants, more than 30 of them in fact this year! Together they will build a diverse program in two tracks throughout the con. From writers reading from their current work, over fans presenting in-depth analysis of our genre, to a scientist presenting the real science in steampunk. As always a diversity of panels will discuss current topics, like Frankenstein´s 200th Birthday, the writings of the late Ursula K. LeGuin & Brian Aldiss, how and why to squee, characters in Tamora Pierce´s work, new genre fiction, etc. In our Steam Market, we have stocked up on publications to buy, gadgets and clothes to wear, Virtual Reality Programs to test, and all the other stuff that is an integral part of a SFF convention. Do visit the tables. They are here to meet you!

You, the members! Finally, we want to thank ALL the members of Fantasticon 2018. Regardless of us in the con-committee, of the special guests, of all the program participants and their preparations, it is YOU, dear member of Fantasticon 2018, that made - and make - this yearly convention possible.

We hope you enjoy the party!

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What is Steampunk? – A short definition by Knud Larn

A modern definition of art goes like this: “Art is that which is presented as art”. Just like art, steampunk is whatever people make it, as long as they (or others) call it steampunk. To approach a definition is just to limit the space available for development of the phenomenon. But in order to put words down for those who want to know the basics – here is a limiting definition:

Steampunk ("steam noise") is a two-part name for a sub genre of speculative fiction, which emphasizes anachronistic technology, typically from the Victorian era of England. The subgenre is related to the broader term retro- futurism and is academically one of several children of cyberpunk.

The technology described often includes steam engines (hence the name), large airships, complex mechanical calculators and other mechanical technology from the 19th century. The subgenre can easily deal with modern objects such as computers, artificial hearts, and limbs - just based on Victorian technology - such as, for example, we see in William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine (1990). Microelectronics in modern sense is not found, nor is combustion engines.

Then, the punk / "noise" element covers a conscious shift of focus from the Victorian era's beautiful bourgeois facade to cover everything that was just below the surface: the romantic, the gothic, the deviant, the supernatural. Thus, you'll find strong tea-drinking women heroes in adorable dresses with nice little umbrellas, well-dressed zombie captains on air ships, delicious werewolves and intriguing vampires at Buckingham Palace - and of course sex. Unlike cyberpunk, mostly written by men to men, steampunk is equally written and read by all genders - and the identification markers in the texts are therefore deliberately directed more widely.

At the beginning of the subgenre´s existence, the authors, regardless of their origin country, held a focus on London as the model town and on the British Empire’s powerful power mechanisms as the basic structure. Later, a number of new authors have transposed steampunk both geographically and temporally. Today we find steampunk stories in all locations (Asia, Africa, even Scandinavia) and in a variety of borrowed clothes (from popular folk tales, medieval surroundings, taking place in the Bronze Age, or in ancient times). Of course, steampunk can also take place in completely invented worlds / on other planets, spaceships, etc. However, continuing with steam machines, clockwork, and put up in a "noisy" context with the reader's expectations of / experience with the settling. As with all recent subgenres in our fantastic literature, Steampunk has also proved very well-suited as experimental ground for literary experiments with politics, gender, religion and other minority and identification agendas.

Steampunk's big and sustained success, unique among cyberpunks many children, is probably linked closely to the fact that it quickly created an audience that not only read books / comics, but were into cinema / art / theater, cosplay, and/or came out of the Do-It-Yourself movement. The main ingredients in the classic steampunk tale now appear to be polished brass, iron, and wood. Gears, handles, springs and other elements of clockwork are also very widespread. As are Victorian fashion - with corsets, lace edges, etc.

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Kostumedrama og samfundskritik - Lidt om steampunk af Niels Dalgaard

De seneste par år er der så småt begyndt at dukke steampunk op i Danmark, et internationalt fænomen der har været et stykke tid undervejs. Men nu har også danske læsere fået adgang til en verden med dampdrevne biler, dampdrevne computere, tandhjul, fjedre, mystiske instrumenter udført i fint messing- finish, herrer i høje hatte (og ofte med komplicerede monokler), damer i lange kjoler, obskur kemi, optrækkelige robotter og zeppelinere. Etiketten ”steampunk” bliver brugt om mange ting, om litteratur, om film, om tegneserier, om cosplay (udklædning), om mode, om fremstilling af forskellige dimser (noget der foretages af makers) og endda til dels om en politisk bevægelse. Begrebet er opstået indenfor litteraturen, og det er efter manges mening stadigvæk den litterære del af steampunken der er den mest interessante. Den første der satte navn på det, var den amerikanske forfatter K. W. Jeter, der i et læserbrev til tidsskriftet Locus i april 1987 skrev:

Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for [Tim] Powers, [James] Blaylock and myself. Something based on the appropriate technology of the era; like ”steampunks”, perhaps…

Der er god grund til at tro at der er et element af ironi i Jeters brev. Ikke så meget overfor de ”victorianske fantasier” han omtaler, men overfor tanken om at en etiket er nødvendig for markedsføring af en litteraturform – hvilket ofte er tilfældet især på det amerikanske bogmarked. Under alle omstændigheder skriver han sit brev, mens den strømning der er blevet kendt som cyberpunken var på sit højeste, en undergenre der blev kendt af en bredere verden gennem William Gibsons roman Neuromancer (1984), og som dyrkede en feticheret udgave af computernetværker, kunstig intelligens og virtual reality. Ved at foreslå en term hvor det kybernetiske er skiftet ud med damp, peger Jeter på at der er tale om to forskellige økonomiske systemer, det ene baseret på data, det andet netop på dampens rå kraft. En anden måde at sige det på er at det udtrykker forskellen mellem en tidlig industrialisme og en informationsøkonomi – men sådan som mange forfattere har praktiseret steampunk, er det ikke sikkert at forskellen er så stor under fortællingernes overflade. Hvilket i nogle tilfælde måske endda er pointen. Ved at bruge udtrykket ”victorianske fantasier” peger Jeter på et andet gennemgående element i steampunken, nemlig at den oftest (men ikke altid) udspiller sig i den britiske dronning Victorias regeringstid (1837-1901). Man kan derfor se det meste af steampunken som en version af den litteraturform der kaldes alternate history, hvor man forestiller sig en verden der på mange måder ligner vores, men hvor den historiske udvikling har taget en anden retning. Kritikeren John Clute har skrevet i The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, at steampunken ofte henter sine forestillinger om det victorianske London fra Charles Dickens. Samtidig kan man konstatere at det er en litteraturform der især praktiseres af amerikanske forfattere – hvilket kunne give anledning til at fundere over hvor tæt på deres emne, de egentlig er. Med hensyn til den politiske bevægelse, udfoldede den sig især omkring tidsskriftet Steampunk Magazine fra cirka midten af nullerne. Her skriver man om en ”ikke-maskinstormerisk kritik af teknologien”, hvormed man ser sig i opposition til cyberpunkens ”ultrahippe dystopi”. Man udtrykker også utilfredshed med det der kaldes ”nostalgisk steampunk”, den ganske udbredte form hvor man på ukritisk vis dyrker ikonografien fra den victorianske tidsalder uden at se den i sammenhæng med det samfund der frembragte den – et samfund med mange uheldige egenskaber. Modsat denne idylliserende leg med billeder ønsker den kritiske steampunk at vise den beskidte underside af det daværende system, og – som det oftest er tilfældet med science fiction på et vist niveau – derigennem vække til eftertanke om den måde vi har indrettet vores nuværende system på (og den rolle teknologien spiller i det). Blandt denne form for ”anti-autoritær litteratur” fremhæves Michael Moorcocks The Warlord of the Air (1871) og William Gibson og Bruce Sterlings The Difference Engine (1990). Uanset hvad steampunk som politisk bevægelse gik ud på – og det synes der ikke at herske nogen større klarhed over – så løb det ud i sandet, og Steampunk Magazine lukkede efter en lille halv snes numre. Hvad der bliver tilbage, er imidlertid en skelnen mellem steampunk som kostumedrama og steampunk som en form for science fiction med et særligt kritisk potentiale. 6

The Difference Engine var nok det første større værk, som etiketten blev sat på i fuld alvor. De to forfattere er mest kendt for cyberpunk, og romanen er da også blevet læst og analyseret i forhold til denne strømning. Ligesom cyberpunken i almindelighed og de to forfatteres kendteste værker i særdeleshed, handler den nemlig især om informationsteknologien. Den bygger på det litterære greb at omplante computerrevolutionen til tiden for den industrielle revolution, og lader dermed det victorianske samfund få dampdrevne computere (og tekstbehandlingsanlæg!), baseret på de idéer som virkelighedens Charles Babbage fremførte, men ikke nåede at se praktiseret. Navnet på hans ufuldendte maskine, ”differens- maskinen”, som bogen har taget titel efter, bliver også et udtryk for difference i en anden betydning, nemlig forskel – både forskellen mellem det virkelige 1800-tals England og den fortalte verden i romanen, og forskellen mellem magthavere og den brede befolkning. Der er ikke tale om nogen romantiseret opfattelse af at computerbaseret overvågning ville blive hyggeligere af at foregå i ”de gode gamle dage”. De tre forfattere, som Jeter nævner i sit brev til Locus, er i virkeligheden ret forskellige, og steampunken har da også bredt sig i forskellige retninger. Tim Powers skrev (og skriver) især fantasy, mens Blaylock hovedsagelig laver mere eller mindre vellykkede genrepasticher på victoriansk litteratur og flittigt betjener sig af ikoner som gale og geniale videnskabsmænd og detektiver, og Jeter selv især beskæftiger sig med den mere gyser-agtige underside af det victorianske samfund. Og siden har genren bredt sig endnu mere; da den for alvor blev et kommercielt fænomen i nullerne, kom der talrige steampunk-værker indenfor såvel fantasy som horror og science fiction. Som det altid går med den slags strømninger, var og er der en hel del ligegyldigheder imellem. Når man kan sælge én roman om spændende begivenheder i et alternativt London, er der ingen grund til ikke at lave den til en serie. Men der skrives også tekster der på forskellig vis prøver, dels at interagere med historien – og med fiktionens egen historie – og dels at kritisere den victorianske model og dermed de rester af den der stadig dominerer vores verden. Der er talrige historier hvor såvel virkelige som fiktive personer optræder, enten som ”gæster” der passerer i baggrunden, eller som væsentlige aktører. I nogle tilfælde er det ikke så forskelligt fra de mange der har skrevet nye historier om Sherlock Holmes, men andre historier tager bevidst fat på enten at omfortolke historiske personer eller bringe intertekstuelle referencer til fiktive personer i spil. Forskellige udgaver af Jack the Ripper optræder fx hyppigt i horror-enden af steampunken, og såvel en virkelig forfatter som H. G. Wells – der ofte postuleres rent faktisk at have opfundet den tidsmaskine han skrev om – som fiktive, ikoniske figurer, fra førnævnte Sherlock Holmes til karakterer fra Dickens’ og Jules Vernes romaner. Et meget udfoldet eksempel på denne leg med de forskellige figurer kan man se i tegneserien (og filmen) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Denne, ofte ganske komplicerede, intertekstuelle leg betyder at steampunken kan ses som en postmoderne litteraturform, der i større eller mindre grad bygger på en forventning om at læserne vil forstå referencerne. Risikoen her er selvfølgelig at man ender med et rent og skært tomt spil, der i sidste ende ikke fortæller nogen anden historie end at vi alle sammen kender den (populær)kulturelle matrix, vi arbejder i. Men de bedre historier af denne art handler ikke kun om ikoniske figurer i pudsige sammenhænge; de er kritiske og revisionistiske overfor det normsæt, disse figurer oftest bevægede sig rundt indenfor. Der er flere beskedne eksempler indenfor den righoldige strøm af steampunk-noveller der er kommet de senere år. Et af dem er Molly Browns historie ”The Selene Gardening Company” (1905). Den er oprindelig skrevet til en antologi med historier i forlængelse af Jules Vernes værker, og lader flere af personerne fra Rejsen til Månen blive involveret i et nyt fantastisk eventyr, tyve år efter det oprindelige. Det er selvfølgelig en helt bevidst leg med fiktive karakterer (et fænomen der bestemt ikke er begrænset til science fiction), men samtidig har denne leg en drejning: Det er ikke de gamle mænd i Baltimores kanonklub, der er den drivende kraft denne gang; det er en af de kvindelige sammenslutninger, der var en del af i victoriatidens overklasse og øvre middelklasse. Det er selvfølgelig lidt af en vittighed, at projektet bliver startet fordi en af de gamle kanonfolk mangler noget at rive i og derfor roder rundt i sin kones have. Ikke desto mindre er det en pointe at det denne gang er kvinderne der er de aktive, og selv om der næppe er nogen der ville tage deres projekt alvorligt i dag, giver det mening at forestille sig at det kunne være blevet taget alvorligt dengang. Projektet, der går ud på at give Månen en atmosfære ved at sende jordisk affald og plantefrø derop, er ikke mere fjollet end så mange samtidige projekter – og det har en økologisk pointe, der i virke- ligheden er meget moderne.

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Endnu mere eksplicit kritisk er James Morrows ”Lady Witherspoon’s Solution” (2008), hvor endnu et kvindeselskab helt konkret arbejder med hævn over voldtægtsmænd og andre former for mandlige misbrugere, som det victorianske samfund ikke havde nogen mangel på. Titlens ordspil lader sig vanskeligt oversætte, fordi ”løsning” og ”opløsning” er to forskellige ord på dansk; men den siger ganske meget om indholdet. Der er også stærke kvinder i en historie som Paul Di Filippos ”Victoria” (1991), der ellers ikke har samfundskritikken stærkt i fokus – selv om den giver nogle barske billeder af underklassens London, er den mere optaget af sin leg med historiske personer og begivenheder – men som har stærke kvinder i spidsen for en bevægelse for social retfærdighed. På grund af betegnelsen ”steampunk” – og fordi den kom så kort efter cyberpunken – er denne form for science fiction blevet kaldt for en litterær bevægelse, men det er der ikke meget der tyder på at den er. Som det er blevet bemærket, er steampunken bagudskuende og fokuserer på den første store udbredelse af genren i årene omkring forrige århundredskifte. Derfor kan den ikke blive andet end en strømning, en æstetik og en kunstform. Det kan selvfølgelig også være nok. Men i kraft af dens potentiale for historisk kritik er det skudt over målet, når science fiction-litteraturhistorikeren Robert Adams (i sin The History of Science Fiction) frakender den enhver værdi som andet end intellektuel leg. Historier som Morrows og Cory Doctorows ”Clockwork Fagin” (2011), der ligesom The Difference Engine diskuterer informations- teknologiens omkostninger, går langt ud over kostumedramaet. Her er referencen til Dickens i øvrigt eksplicit, titlens Fagin er en ubehagelig person i hans Oliver Twist. Doctorow opdaterer teknologien, men gør det også tydeligt at den tidlige industrialismes brutalitet koster børnearbejderes liv og førlighed. Det er distancen mellem forfatteren og den tid, han lader sin historie udspille sig i, der muliggør den alternative vinkel på tingene. Derfor blev der heller ikke skrevet steampunk i victoriatiden – uanset at opfindsomme forlæggere kalder både H. G. Wells og Jules Verne (to forfattere der var 40 år imellem!) for steampunk. De var kolossalt vigtige science fiction-forfattere, men de reflekterede over deres samtid uden at bruge en historisk distance, som de af gode grunde ikke kunne have. Der er mange grunde til at læse dem (og man har indtryk af at i al fald visse steampunk-forfattere har ladet sig inspirere af interiører fra visse af Jules Vernes romaner), men steampunk skrev de ikke. Har steampunken en fremtid? Det er vanskeligt at sige. Det er indlysende at der kan produceres kommercielle værker der ligner alle de andre kommercielle værker, men dels er det ikke sikkert at interessen vil blive ved med at være lige så stor – værker af den type har det med at blegne når den næste ”nye ting” dukker op – og dels forekommer det også en smule ligegyldigt, hvis det bare er gentagelser af ting der allerede er gjort i forvejen. Hvad der derimod kunne være interessant var, hvis flere forfattere tog formen op for at gå et lag dybere end alle zeppelinerne og de gale videnskabsmænd. Så ville steampunken kunne blive et redskab til at undersøge og diskutere hvordan et samfund og et økonomisk system er skruet sammen, og hvilke interesser der styrer, ikke alene det victorianske England, men også nutidens globale system. Selvfølgelig gerne med bibeholdelse af de legende elementer – det ville ikke gøre zeppelinerne mindre charmerende, men mere vedkommende.

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Jules Verne og Dampen – en refleksion af Bjørn Larsen

Jules Verne nævnes ofte i forbindelse med fødslen af Steampunk, f.eks. er han nævnt på 20 af siderne i min Steampunk Bible, der også har lånt forside fra de gamle førsteudgaver fra forlaget Hetzel, hvor forsiden går under navnet ”De to elefanter”, her ved siden af romanen, der på dansk blev oversat til Ved Amazonfloden.

Imidlertid beskæftiger Verne sig kun lidt i sit meget store forfatterskab med teknik, og hvor romanerne kan betegnes som science fiction. Det meste er spændende rejsebeskrivelser. Illustrationerne er dog ofte ren steampunk. Som eksempel følgende illustrationer til Rejsen til Månen med det indre af måneprojektilet, der mest ligner et biedermeier-herreværelse. Der er små spændende rum, hvor man kan gemme både våben og høns, hvilket i Hergés version Månen tur-retur naturligvis bliver til Kaptajn Haddocks skjulte whiskyflasker.

Her også tegnerens vision af fremtidens transportmiddel til månerejser, der jo kan sammenlignes med det første tog fra København til Roskilde i 1847.

Jules Verne var fra sin tidligste ungdom sikker på, at han ville være forfatter, men vidste ikke af hvad. Han skrev en række små teaterstykker og en mængde digte og nogle få noveller, men først fra omkring 1863 påbegyndte han den lange række af romaner med fællestitlen Voyages Extraordinaires, der rummer op mod 70 romaner og romanudkast. Ikke alt er oversat til dansk, men Jules Vernes Slskabets sekretær Leif Rasmussen arbejder ihærdigt sammen med forlaget Det Poetiske Bureau på at få det manglende oversat. Det er indtil videre blevet til 4 meget interessante bind, og det femte bind Foran Flaget skulle udkomme i

9 løbet af efteråret. Forude venter udgivelser af Guldmeteoret og Guldvulkanen. Alle tre bind rummer tekniske punk-opfindelser, bl.a. en gal videnskabsmand, der opfinder en kikkert, så han kan styre et meteor af guld til at lande på netop hans ø ved Grønland. Dette komplette oversættelsesprojekt er en kæmpeopgave for et lille forlag, medens store forlag som Gyldendal ikke har udsendt spændende Verne i over 100 år.

Vernes digte og skuespil fra før han blev berømt er nu udsendt på fransk. Følgende sonet er fra 1847, året hvor man kunne rejse med jernbanen til Roskilde med den svimlende fart af 50 km/timen.

La vapeur /Dampen - sonet fra april 1847

Oversat fra fransk af Anne Marie Halgren Eriksen.

Maintenant la vapeur est à l'ordre du jour. Tout Nu er dampen på dagsordenen. Alt bevæger sig ved marche par son aide ! Est-ce un bien pour le monde ? hjælp af den! Er det et gode for verden? For at kunne Pour bien choisir sur terre où toute chose abonde, vælge rigtigt på jorden, hvor alt findes til overflod, er Faut-il donc se hâter, lorsqu'on en fait le tour. det da nødvendigt at skynde sig, når man rejser Jorden rundt? On vole désormais sur la terre et sur l'onde ; On fait sans y penser l'aller et le retour ; On singe le soleil qui, Man iler i fremtiden på jord og på bølge; man rejser ud lorsqu'il fait sa ronde, Mesure en une nuit le céleste og hjem uden at tænke over det; man efteraber Solen séjour. som, når den går sin runde, måler på én nat de himmelske boliger. Ce ne peut être un bien que dans ces temps de guerre, Où sont anéantis ces hommes qui naguère Marchaient Det ville ikke være godt i disse krigstider, hvor de contre la mort sans reproche et sans peur, mænd blev tilintetgjort, som for nylig gik døden i møde uden dadel og uden frygt, Si trompant l'ennemi par sa subtile ruse, Refaisant des guerriers autant que l'on en use, L'amour toutes les hvis man narrende fjenden med en raffineret list, og nuits marchait à la vapeur ! genskabte lige så mange krigere, som man slider op, ved at kærligheden hver nat kørte på damp!

Sonettens pointe er ungdommelig fræk, men vel også en form for steampunk? Sonetten viser, at den unge Jules tidligt var interesseret i teknik og naturvidenskab, om end med en smule ironisk distance. I digtet sætter Verne 15 år før sit gennembrud spørgsmålstegn ved hele sit senere forfatterskab! Hvorfor farte rundt om Jorden i 80 dage eller besøge hvert eneste af klodens hjørner? Det er så de ca. 70 romaner et forsøg på at finde ud af. Dampen drøftes også siden i romanen La maison à vapeur (med den dårlige danske oversættelse Det rullende Hus (1881); den svenske udgave fra 1880, Ånghuset, er langt bedre).

Elefanten i Det rullende Hus er helt af jern, og et lokomotiv er skjult indeni den. Elefanten trækker to vogne, og dette ”steam house” er det rullende hus. Indretningen af disse mekaniske giganter er i tidens smag, som man her se på følgende side fra en tegneserieudgave af En verdensomsejling: der mangler intet af viktoriatidens luksus.

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Det går dampelefanten ilde, så her har vi en slags svar på spørgsmålet om dampen er et gode for verden. Inden man overlader elefanten til dens sørgelige skæbne, belaster man maskinens ventiler tungt: Dampen fik derved en høj spænding, og da stålkæmpen stødte mod en klippevæg forårsagede dampen, der ikke kunne slippe ud gennem ventilcylinderne at kedlen sprang, og stumperne af den fløj til alle sider. ”Stakkels kæmpe”, udbrød kaptajn Hod, ”du måtte dø for at frelse os” (1881 udgaven fra Andreas Schous forlag). Det rullende hus er Vernes bedste bidrag til steampunkens fødsel.

På samme måde går den stolte undervandsbåd Nautilus som bekendt også sin undergang i møde enten i en malstrøm eller i et vulkanudbrud.

Selvom Verne kun har bidraget lidt til steampunkens fødsel, dyrkes han dog med stor veneration både i film og videredigtning af især kaptajn Nemos liv og voldsomme virke. Her bør nævnes de ni bind om Det hemmelighedsfulde selskab og fortsættelsen, der fortæller om diverse klassiske romanfigurer herunder Kaptajn Nemos datter og den grufulde heks fra Rider Haggards romaner om hun, der må adlydes.

En dametaske, der er et must ved enhver steampunkfest:

I Norge får Verne i disse år en velfortjent genfødsel. Vidarforlaget er med hjælp fra Verneeksperten Per Johan Moe i fuld gang med at udsende de bedst kendte af romanerne med samtlige originale illustrationer og grundige noter og efterord af Per Johan. Forsider til andre romaner udnytter denne vernebølge ved at benytter forsider, der antyder en vis steampunkinteresse.

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I Danmark er det som nævnt kun forlaget Det Poetiske Bureaus forlag der udsender interessant Verne i små, billige bøger. Her den seneste, hvor dampen udnyttes til at grave kanaler til det indre af Sahara for at skabe et nyt hav.

Nyeste udgave fra Det Poetiske.

Og så har e-bogs forlaget eBIBLIOTEK1800 udsendt op mod 30 Verneudgaver, hvoraf flere er førsteudgaver.

Så Verne lever måske dybt i steampunkens dunkle og fugtige underbevidsthed med dens stadige puls af dampmaskiners stempelslag.

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Buy Books! - By the Guests of Honor!

The kind people at Angry Robot Books, a UK small press publisher, have published works by our Guests of Honor. By kind agreement with them, we have made sure you can buy both Jeannette Ng´s award nominated book, Under the Pendulum Sun, as well as Lavie Tidhar´s steampunk opus, The Bookman Trilogy at Fantasticon 2018!

We have added the seminal steampunk trilogy from pioneer K. W. Jeter, Infernal Machines, that we will be discussing in detail on the Sunday Critic´s Panel, as well as K.W. Jeter´s exiting continuation of H. G. Well´s The Time Machine called Morlock Nights , that we will be talking about on Saturday.

- Get them all at the Fantasticon registration desk!

www.angryrobotbooks.com

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Events not to miss this year!

The 2018 festival presents a number of events that you really should make sure not to miss!

Firstly, we have flown in two Guests of Honor to this year´s convention. They will appear on panels, they will be interviewed, and they will be available throughout the convention. Go talk to them!

- Lavie Tidhar has written a number of books, which we will talk with him about extensively in the GoH Interview on Saturday. Hopefully you have read some of them, or you can jumpstart this by reading the short story we present in this Program Book! Lavie Tidhar is also a very important presenter of non-anglocentric fiction through his APEX magazine, webpage, and anthologies. A second GoH Interview on Sunday with him will focus on this aspect of his work.

- Jeannette Ng is a writer of an exceptional Victorian novel about magic, Africa, and religion. So exceptional that this debut novel have nominated her for an award for best new writer! We will talk about this intriguing novel and her Victorian interest in the GoH Interview. Jeannette Ng is also an ardent cosplayer and live role-playing enthusiast, and blogs about this. Jeannette Ng brings a bundle of clothes to sell at the con, and will lead a workshop about cosplaying and setting hair on Saturday afternoon, that you will not want to miss!

Our Special Guest LUX ARTIS SWEDEN, a gallery offering fantastic art in original and reproduction, will make an exhibition of steampunk art at Fantasticon 2018. Do remember to find time to look at all the wonderful paintings. We will interview them Friday about promoting artists and raising awareness of fantastic art.

Our traditional Saturday Banquet will involve outstanding food & drink as well as speeches, awards, and entertainment! Our two Guests of Honor will give their talks during the dinner, and we will be singing filk (fannish folksongs about the genre and its characters) from fannish songbooks that you will wish to take home with you! Leading up to the con, you can taste real Steam Gin & Tonics in the lounge area!

In 1818, 200 years ago, Mary Shelley published her fantastic novel Frankenstein. We take a look at this story in a panel set up to celebrate the legacy of her work, both as a story, and the many transformations of it into different medias.

Speaking of looking at dead people, two of the writers who we have lost in the past year will be re-assessed in separate panels this year:

- Brian Wilson Aldiss was born in the UK in 1925. He was a highly decorated science fiction author who achieved the rare feat of acceptance as a writer of real significance by the literary establishment in his lifetime. As well as his many award-winning novels he has been a hugely important anthologist and editor in the field. He also wrote the pre-eminent history of the genre, Billion Year Spree (later expanded and revised as Trillion Year Spree). He died in August 2017, the day after his 92nd birthday.

- Ursula K. Le Guin, born in 1929, was an American author primarily known for her works of speculative fiction. These include works set in the fictional world of Earthsea, stories in the Hainish Cycle, standalone novels and short stories. Le Guin came to critical attention with the publication of A Wizard of Earthsea in 1968, and The Left Hand of Darkness in 1969. Her work has received intense critical attention over the years. LeGuin died in January 2018. 14

Our national genre award, The Niels Klim Award, is named after a famous Danish genre novel: Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum (Latin first edition published in Leipzig 1741; in English: “Niels Klim's Underground Travels”). In the first year alone, translations into German, English, French, Danish, and Dutch appeared – to be followed by translations into Swedish (1746), Russian (1762) and Hungarian (1783). It became one of the most read satirical utopias in its time, and it is a fine early example of a Hollow-Earth story. At Fantasticon 2018, on Sunday, we will present this year´s winners with their awards. There will be awards for best novel, best story and best translated work.

At the Steam Market you can test out Virtual Reality. If you haven’t done this before, do go by and take a peak at the future! And you can shop books by the Guests of Honor, as well as a lot of other stuff.

Film buff Tue Sørensen will show a steampunk movie for us: – April and the Extraordinary World (French: Avril et le Monde Truqué lit. “April and the Fake World”). It is a 2015 French-Belgian-Canadian animated science fiction adventure film co-directed by Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci, co-written by Ekinci and Benjamin Legrand, and starring Marion Cotillard. It depicts an alternate steampunk world with a visual style based on the work of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi.

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Titanic! - A short story by our GoH Lavie Tidhar

10 April 1912

When I come on board the ship I pay little heed to her splendour; nor to the gaily-strewn lines of coloured electric lights, nor to the polished brass of the crew’s jacket uniforms, nor to the crowds at the dock in Southampton, waving handkerchiefs and pushing and shoving for a better look; nor to my fellow passengers. I keep my eyes open only for signs of pursuit; specifically, for signs of the Law.

The ship is named the Titanic. I had purchased a second-class ticket in London the day before. I had travelled down to Southampton by train. I had packed hurriedly. I do not know how far behind me the officers are. I know only that they would come. He had made sure of that, in his last excursion. The corpses he left were a mockery, body parts ripped, exposed ribcages and lungs stretched like Indian rubber, he had turned murder into a sculpture, a form of grotesque art. The Japanese would call such a thing as he a yōkai, a monster, otherworldly and weird. Or perhaps a kaiju. I admire the Japanese for their mastery of the science of monstrosity, of what in our Latin will be called the lusus naturae. I have corresponded with a Dr. Yamane, of Tokyo, for some time, but have of course destroyed all correspondence when I escaped from London.

And yet I cannot leave him behind. I had packed hurriedly. A simple change of clothes. I had not dressed like a gentleman. But I carry, along with my portmanteau, also my doctor’s black medical bag; it defines me more than I could ever define myself otherwise; it is as much a part of me as my toes, or my navel, or my eyes; and inside the bag I carry him, all that is left of him: one bottle, that is all, and the rest were all smashed up to shards back in London, back in the house where the bodies are.

I present my ticket to the steward. There is no suspicion in his eyes. He smiles courteously, professionally, already not seeing me as he turns to the ones behind me; and then I am on board. Perhaps infected by the other passengers’ gaiety, perhaps just relieved at my soon to be escape, I stand with them on the deck, against the railings, shouting and waving at the people we are soon to leave behind. My heart beats faster; my palms sweat; I am eager for us to depart, for our transatlantic journey to begin. I long for escape.

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At last it happens. The horn sounds and the gangplanks are raised and we are off! I sigh with relief; I had not realised how tense I had been. But fear had taken its hold on me, in all the long years of living with him; his presence is my life had made me fearful; the day he would get careless, or go too far, and leave me to be captured.

No longer!

England is a cesspit of corruption. It is too small, too confining. It looks not to the future, but to the past, it is rigid and unyielding. It is time for me to look elsewhere, to the New World; where a scientist may work in peace, where there is space to grow... and where he, too, could roam more freely, for it is a vast land and people may disappear there more easily; and never be seen again. Yes, he could be controlled, there. But for now he is dormant within me. He will not emerge on this voyage. Not unless I will it.

A near-accident. Our huge bulk causes waves in the harbour. We nearly drown two smaller ship: The SS City of New York and the Oceanic. I watch them rise on the waves, thinking of the size and power of the Titanic, like the power that I, myself, hold within me. It is a power all human beings have; yet I alone have found the means of liberating it. Only in Japan, perhaps, is there science greater than mine – but that land is far and their experiments have taken them in a different direction to my own. No, I am confident in my heart, my potion is unique; and I, a true original.

The passage out goes without a further hitch. The two smaller ship are not harmed, and I feel neither satisfaction nor disappointment. I stand on the deck and watch the harbour recede from view for a long time. I watch England grow smaller in the distance. I cannot wait for it to disappear.

11 April 1912

Cork.

How I loathe the Irish!

The docks swarm with these Irishmen and their equally squalid women. They come on board, several obviously drunk and singing riotously. I stand on the deck and smoke a cigar. A man of middle years and a somewhat stooped posture engages me in conversation. “You are a doctor?” he says, on noticing my black bag (I do not dare part with it. These Irishmen may steal a doctor’s bag as easily as they would slit a man’s throat!). “Yes, yes,” I say, “what is it to you?”

Instead of taking offense he chuckles good-naturedly. “I myself am in the medical profession,” he says. I say, “Oh?” and roll the cigar in my mouth. “Yes,” he says, “I am a purveyor of the snake oil cure, are you familiar with that panacea?”

“Enhydris chinensis,” I say. “It is a medicine of the Chinese people, is it not?” I do not tell him I had studied it intensively, my research has increasingly taken me to study the obscure and arcane sciences of the East. “Yes,” he says, “it is a marvellous medicine, a cure-all.”

I make a dismissive gesture and his moustache quivers at that. “Do you not agree, Sir?” he says. I tap my cigar and watch the ash blow in the wind. Will the ship never leave? I am unsafe as long as we are in these European waters. Have the bodies been found yet? Has Hyde been implicated? He is well known to the police. “Excuse me,” I say. “I meant no offense.”

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His good humour returns. He gives me his calling card and asks me to call on him once in New York, promising me a bulk discount on his stock. It is of the utmost benefit to any doctor, he assures me. I am glad to be rid of him. At long last the ship departs. There are thousands of us on board.

12 April 1912

At last, the open sea!

The ocean is calm. The weather is mild. A sense of wild freedom grips me. The New World beckons! I have successfully avoided pursuit, capture. In New York I could start again, and the name of Jekyll will be forgotten. I pat my bag, thinking of the bottle it holds. Already I am craving it. In America I will make more of the potion. He wants to get out, I can feel him, pushing.

13 April 1912

A cold front. Strong winds and high waves. Nevertheless I brave the deck. I find being confined below excruciating, the press of people is repulsive to me. I take in the sea air but my attempts to light a cigar prove futile.

Last night I tossed and turned, the need burning inside me. I could feel Edward leering inside me, pushing to be let out. I find myself regarding women with Hyde’s eyes, with his hunger. I see men and think of the blood coursing through them, and of the glint of knives. More than two decades ago when my experiments had just began he and I were sloppy. Jack, they had called him then. I had less control of the formula then. The cold air revives me. Anticipation of the New World soothes me. I feel as though I have been given a second chance.

14 April 1912

The sea is very calm, but there is a chill in the air. It is a fine morning. I have spoken to no one. It is a lonely life, sometimes. But I have him for company, always. The presence of the bottle in my bag reassures me. It will not be long now.

14 April 1912

An ungodly crash!

I had just been climbing up to the deck when the entire ship groaned and creaked as if hit by some vast and monstrous hammer. I fell but found my balance. My black bag was with me and I assured myself the sample inside was intact. I hurried up stairs, finding the decks in a confusion of people. What could this mean?

“Sir?” I hear an officer speak near me, and I find myself pushed to the front, and realise the man replenished in magnificent uniform further ahead is the Captain. “Sir? We’ve hit something!”

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“It is an iceberg?” the Captain says, his manner outwardly calm. “No, Sir,” the officer says. “It isn’t an iceberg. It’s a—”

Someone screams. It is a high pitched scream, but I cannot tell if it is made by a man or a woman. “Look up! Look at that – that thing!”

As if on cue the ship’s powerful spotlights come on at once, piercing the night, momentarily blinding me. I hear a terrible sound, a roar as of a thousand engines cranking up to their utmost power and beyond their breaking point.

“It’s a... it’s a-!”

My God, I think, awed. How could anyone mistake this for an iceberg?

It towers over the ship, and the Titanic looks like a toy in comparison. An enormous, beautiful monstrosity, like a cross between a gorilla and a whale: it opens its mouth and roars, and a lizard’s giant claws land with a defeating roar on the deck of the Titanic, splintering wood and cutting deep into the underlying levels. I hear screams, and see a man’s head explode like a wet red balloon where the monster had crashed it in its wake.

“It’s a-!”

“It’s a daikaiju,” I say, though they do not hear me. I breathe out. A giant kaiju! The scientist in me is enthralled. The beast within me is hungry. Hyde responds to the creature like a drunk, he bangs against the walls of his prison, to be let out. Screams rise into the air. The monster, angered or afraid, lashes again at the ship. Its powerful tail slams into the side of the ship and the deck tilts alarmingly. Bodies fly through the air. “Abandon ship! Abandon ship!” Panic takes over the Titanic. “To the life boats!” A press of bodies as the ones down below attempt to climb up to the open deck, to find escape. People shove and push each other in their panic. I see a woman trampled underfoot. I, too, try to make my way to the life boats, but the swell of people is too strong, and I am old; and panic rises in me as I am side-lined, pushed, shoved, hurt, and all the while the beast roars above our heads, lashing with talons and tale at the Titanic, ripping it slowly apart.

“To the boats!” and there they go, while, unbelievably, the ship’s orchestra plays on, at least until the beast, annoyed, perhaps, by the noise, slashes at them with its claws and the music stops abruptly with a clatter of panicked notes. The ship tilts: we are sinking. I hear the boats dropping into the waters, hear a gunshot ring as officers attempt to control the manic passengers. “Children and women first!”

And something breaks in me. Something that has no name, no label I could easily affix to it, like to a specimen bottle, or a beaker of potion. I can escape, I realise, and yet...

“Doctor!” I hear the cry. “We need a doctor! Please, help!”

A woman lying on the deck, holding an injured child in her arms. Her face is panicked. There is blood on the deck.

I still tightly hold my black medicine bag. Now I open it. All of a doctor’s requirements are there. I could help them...

I reach inside and find the bottle.

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The potion. My life’s work.

I could help the child, I think. Or I could let out Mr. Hyde.

I stare at the bottle in my hands. To swallow its contents would liberate me, would Hyde me, would allow me to fight my way to the life boats, and to escape, to live.

I had lived half my life a monster, I realise; and that had led to my eventual ruin, and my disgrace, and finally my exile.

I look up at that titanic being towering over the ship. It is frightened, I think. Monstrous, yes: but also beautiful. And I am glad I have lived long enough to see one.

I look at it for a long moment, and then I look at the bottle in my hands.

“Please! Help him!”

I could live, a monster, I realise; or I could die a man.

I stretch my arm as far back as it would go, then back, in one smooth motion, and throw the bottle as hard and as fast as I can into the roiling sea.

Con-committee 2018 - Those who made it happen:

Con-committee 2018 is Knud Larn, Lise Andreasen, Manfred Christiansen, Camilla Brygger, Jesper Rugård Jensen, Sarah Fürst, Joen Juel Jensen, Bente Riis, Billy O´Shea, Tue Sørensen, Majbritt Høyrup – and assisted by Fantasticon Board Members Flemming Rasch & Lars Ahn Pedersen.

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The steampunk classics – what to read first?

There are two lists on the net regarding what to read in the subgenre of steampunk. One by the critics, listing important works/works that influence, and one by the fans listing the popular works/works that are referred to often by readers.

The Critic´s list:  Tim Powers: The Anubis Gates (1983)  K.W Jeter: Infernal Devices (1987)  William Gibson and Bruce Sterling: The Difference Engine (1991)  China Mieville: Perdido Street Station (2000)  Cherie Priest: Boneshaker (2009)  George Mann: The Executioner’s Heart (2013)  Alan Baker: The Martian Ambassdor (2011)  Jonathan L. Howard: Johannes Cabal the Detective (2011)  Mark Hodder: The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man (2011)  Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer: Steampunk (2008) and Steampunk Re-loaded (2010)

We will be discussing Jeter and Priest on the Sunday morning critic´s panel.

Based on number of times a work has been mentioned on the net in steampunk fan´s discussions, and on fan´s list, we get this list:

The Fan´s List:

 The Difference Engine by William Gibson &  Homunculus by James P. Blaylock Bruce Sterling  Airborn by Kenneth Oppel  Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld  The Steampunk Trilogy by Paul Di Fillipo  Boneshaker by Cherie Priest  The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide… by  The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock Jeff Vandermeer and S.J. Chambers  The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers  The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon  Perdido Street Station by China Miéville Dahlquist  Infernal Devices by K.W. Jeter  Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare  Steampunk by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer  Anno Dracula by Kim Newman  20.000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne  The Scar by China Mieville  Soulless by Gail Carriger  The Land Leviathan by Michael Moorcock  Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve  The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman  The Time Machine by H.G. Wells  The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by  The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman Mark Hodder  The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson  The Court of The Air by Stephen Hunt  Mainspring by Jay Lake  The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher  The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan  Morlock Night by K. W. Jeter Moore  Extraordinary Engines by Nick Gevers  The Affinity Bridge by George Mann  Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon  Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

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Steampunk på dansk – en oversigt af Lise Andreasen

Lise Andreasen vil om fredagen præsentere steampunkbøger på dansk for os på Fantasticon. Noget er der jo kommet på dansk! Men hvad?

- Vi har smugkigget i hendes liste som følger her:

Romaner: Urmageren i Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley. Krystalskibet, Benni Bødker. Transformationsmaskinen, Nikolaj Johansen. 2 bind. Kaptajn Prometeus, Benni Bødker. 4 bind. Det Mekaniske Hjerte, Peter Bunzl. Soulless, Gail Carriger. 3 bind. Molly Gabe og den snoede pistol, P.H.A. Krogh. Djævelske mekanismer, Cassandra Clare. 3 bind. Ritmatikeren, Brandon Sanderson.

Noveller: Stig W. Jørgensen: “Dronning Margrethe II og jeg, alene i et Luftskib 1500 Meter over Øresund”. De smukke drømmes palads, SFC. “Biografiske noter til ‘En afhandling om kausalitetens natur (med luftfartøjer)’ af Benjamin Rosenbaum”. Start uret, Benjamin Rosenbaum, SFC. Glen Stihmøe: “Komtessen, opfinderen, direktøren og baronen – og Emma”. De sidste kærester på Månen, Lige under overfladen 9, SFC. Flemming R.P. Rasch: “Som et urværk”. Som et urværk, Lige under overfladen 10, SFC. Glen Stihmøe: “Øverste Tandhjul”. Efter fødslen, Lige under overfladen 12, SFC.

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Buy MORE Books! – We present SF BOK & Fantask

Both while we planned Fantasticon, and running up to the convention, we have had great support from the two major genre specialty stores in Øresund: Copenhagen´s Fantask and Malmø´s SF Bokhandelen. They have graciously handed out our postcards to customers, they show our poster, and they present steampunk books, referring to Fantasticon 2018.

We expect to be selling (some) genre books from them during the convention. Please remember that you support Fantasticon by shopping your books at the con!

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Hvorfor skrive Steampunk – et interview med Billy O´Shea

Hvad siger forfatterne om steampunk? Hvorfor vælger man som forfatter at skrive netop steampunk?

Det har vi bedt forfatteren Billy O´Shea om at fortælle os. Hans bogserie The Kingdom of Clockwork er en serie science fiction / steampunk romaner som udspiller sig i en verden opstået i Skandinavien efter civilisationens sammenbrud. Ramt af mangel på fossile brændstoffer og basal viden om tidligere tiders teknologi kan de nye kongeriger i de nordlige lande kun trække på vindens kraft, som de opbevarer ved hjælp af et sindrigt urværk. Men kongen i Kantarborg har planer om at grave i fortidens andre hemmeligheder og lokker en ung urmager ved hoffet ind i de farlige planer.

The Kingdom of Clockwork-serien er blevet beskrevet som “alternativ historie, historisk fantasi og steampunk”. Bøgerne er skæve, spændende, humoristiske fortællinger om fornuft, magi og menneskehed. Ægte skandinavisk historie og steder kombineres med fantasifulde udflugter, både bogstavelige og metaforiske. Billy O´Shea vil blive interviewet om trilogien på Fantasticon, og man vil kunne købe bøgerne på Billy´s stand på Steam Market.

Billy O’Shea er irer, men har boet i Skandinavien i mere end tredive år. Blandt hans inspirationskilder til The Kingdom of Clockwork-serien nævner han danskeren H.C. Andersen, irlænderen Jonathan Swift og den engelske science fiction forfatter Francis Godwin fra det 17. århundrede.

Her er Billy O´Shea´s tanker om at skrive steampunk:

”Science fiction i sit udgangspunkt drejer sig som bekendt i nogen grad om teknologi og dens virkninger på mennesker, og her er steampunk ingen undtagelse. Det særlige ved steampunk er dog, at det fokuserer mest på mulighederne i fortidens teknologi, snarere end fremtidens. Man kunne måske hævde, at de tidligste science fiction forfattere, såsom H.G. Wells, Jules Verne og Mary Shelley, alle var steampunk forfattere i en eller anden forstand, men den første egentlige steampunk roman var The Difference Engine, skrevet af William Gibson og Bruce Sterling. Den udkom i 1990, og stillede spørgsmålet: Hvad ville der være sket, hvis den geniale engelske opfinder Charles Babbage havde gjort sit projekt færdig, og opfundet en fungerende computer allerede i 1800-tallet? Det er i sig selv et fascinerende spørgsmål, og siden er føjet flere til:

 Hvad var der sket hvis Nikola Tesla havde fundet den kilde til gratis strøm, han tilsyneladende ledte efter?  Hvad hvis tidsrejser var blevet mulige, ligesom i H.G. Wells bog The Time Machine?  Hvad nu hvis også rumraketter var blevet opfundet i victorianske tider?

Men sagens kerne er nok først og fremmest et spørgsmål om stil – om den elegance, der fandtes i de europæiske samfund før katastrofen i 1914. Der finder man en elegance, der ikke nødvendigvis afskyer teknologi – og en teknologi, der ikke nødvendigvis afviser elegance som overflødig pynt. Steampunk fans elsker hvordan datidens teknologi så ud: spoler, kikkerter, reagensglas, messing, kobber, træ. Det spændende er, at kombinere dette look med moderne teknologi – f.eks. ved at dukke op til en steampunk- con med et computertastatur, der ser ud som om, det stammer fra hoffet i Versailles. Eller ved at sy en kjole i 1800-århundredestil, men med hylster til plasma-pistol og geigertæller. Typisk er luftskibe også tilstede, i al fald i fantasien. Det hele er sjovt, og humoristisk.

Der er også unægtelig en vis romantik over det, med en appel, der måske ligner det, som ‘Star Trek’ og lignende serier havde i gamle dage, før virkelige rumrejser blev alt for hverdagsagtige. I Storbritannien, plejer steampunk kultur primært at dreje sig om victoriansk tøj og stil, hvorimod i USA bærer det oftere en mere ‘wild west’ præg. Men der er ingen grund til, at man absolut skal rette sig efter den angelsaksiske verden – så hvorfor ikke opfinde en skandinavisk steampunkstil?

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Derfor har jeg i mine bøger valgt en anden tilgang: jeg trækker på de 2 kulturer, jeg kender bedst, nemlig det irske og det skandinaviske. Irland og Danmark har aldrig haft mange mineralråstoffer, og er derfor aldrig stået særlig centralt i den industrielle revolution. I mine bøger findes derfor ingen dampmaskiner. I stedet forestiller jeg mig, at den menneskelige civilisation er bukket under på et eller andet tidspunkt i det sene 21. århundrede, hvorefter historien er så at sige startet forfra, og nu er ved at nå et punkt i Danmark, der minder lidt om renæssancen. Uden fossilbrændstoffer er folk dog tvunget til at gøre omfattende brug af andre teknologier, især urværk.

Det giver mig lejlighed til at kombinere en Christian IV-agtig kultur med indslag fra mere moderne tider, såsom urværksjernbaner og luftskibe. Som science fiction forfatter, er det en sjov verden at skrive om, med mange muligheder for intriger, humor, osv. Men klassisk steampunk kan man vist ikke kalde det – snarere ‘clockpunk’ . Ikke desto mindre har steampunk-folkene hilst mine bøger velkommen, og det er i sig selv noget, der karakteriserer steampunk: en rummelighed over for alle, hvad enten man er ung eller gammel, garvet nørd eller nybegynder.

Det centrale er, at tingene skal være sjove.”

Karl-Johan Norén – our Scandinavian FILK singer!

Karl-Johan Norén is an active Swedish science fiction fan based in Jönköping, and an inspired Scandinavian FILK-singer. FILK is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom. The phenomenon has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s. It's commonly described casually as "science-fiction folk music" -- and in fact, the word "filk" comes from a typo for "folk" in a 1950s essay.

Currently, Karl-Johan Norén (along with fellow fens) runs Fandompodden, https://fandompodden.podbean.com/, a series of podcasts addressing fandom issues and interviewing fens. At Fantasticon 2018 Karl- Johan Norén will introduce and sing FILK with us at the Saturday Dinner, and leading up to this, he will present a Swedish Fandom History through the songs we used to sing!

To give a slight taste of Filk, Karl-Johan Norén has sent us this example for the program book, a Girl Genius song (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/) from Tom Smith (http://www.tomsmithonline.com). You should really look deeper into this universe 

Our traveling heroine Agatha Heterodyne has just reached Mechanicsburg and the kids there are singing a song for the tourists: 25

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Mechanicsburg, Mechanicsburg, How glorious her Hospital Welcome to Mechanicsburg! Which helps folk far and near, There's no finer city from Bill and Barry Heterodyne St. Petersburg to Rome. Built it for us here.

Mechanicsburg, Mechanicsburg, Mechanicsburg, Mechanicsburg, The loveliest we've ever heard of, Welcome to Mechanicsburg, Jewel of Europa and We thank you so for visiting, The place where we call home. With every erg and ohm.

How mighty are her mighty walls, Mechanicsburg, Mechanicsburg, How shiny are her clanks, The greatest burg we've ever heard of, How beautiful her dairy farms, Jewel of Europa and And for her cheese we all give thanks. The place where we call home.

Link to a performance of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8_fAS_25gk

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What happens at Fantasticon 2018?

Our rented rooms at Serapion consists of five different places, on three different levels. The Steam Market, The Bar, and The Steam Lounge Area are all on the Ground floor. The Engine Room is on the Mezzanine floor. The Ballroom is on the First floor. Toilets are only on the Ground floor, next to The Bar and the Steam Market. All smoking must take place outside the house, in the garden area.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM !

Friday September 21st : 16:00- Engine Informal opening, A Short History of Knud Larn & others. ENG 17:45 Room Steampunk and some words about the New Nordic Steampunk Project. 17:00- Engine Book Release! Panel med Nikolaj Johansen, DA 17:45 Room Krinoline & kedsomhed – nye danske Manfred Christiansen, Jesper steampunk noveller. Rugaard, & Knud Larn (M). 17:00- Steam The Steampunk Books of Future Darkness Patrik Sahlstrøm interviewed by ENG 17:45 Lounge – A reading and an interview. Tue Sørensen.

18:00- Engine Hvad har vi ellers af steampunk på dansk? Præsentation ved Lise DA 18:45 Room Andreasen. 18:00- Steam Is this your first convention? Some convention pointers for ENG 18:45 Lounge beginners from Fia Kalsson 18:00- Ballroom Steampunk Film Show: April & The Tue Sørensen introduces and ENG 19:45 Extraordinary World shows the film 19:00- Engine Book Release! Redaktør og oversætter Niels DA 19:45 Room Damphammeren – ny oversat steampunk. Dalgaard interviewes af Knud Larn. 20:00- Steam Lucie – En læsning og et interview. Forfatter Anne-Marie Vedsø DA 20:45 Lounge Olesen interviewes af Flemming Rasch, hvorefter Vedsø Olesen læser op fra Lucie! 20:00- Engine Special Guest: LUX ARTIS – Steampunk Gallery representative Witek ENG 20:45 Room Art Wisnievski interviewed by Klaus Æ. Mogensen 21:00- Engine The Afterlife of H.G. Well´s The Time Talk by Joen Juel Jensen ENG 21:45 Room Machine 22:00- Engine The Actual Science of Steampunk Talk by Dr. Edmund Schluessel ENG 22:45 Room The Bar will be open from 16:00-23:00.

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Saturday September 22nd: 10:00- Ballroom Remembering Brian Aldiss Niels Dalgaard, Billy O´Shea, Eva ENG 10:45 Holmquist, and Flemming Rasch (M) talk about the legacy of the late Brian Aldiss and his works. 11:00- Ballroom GoH-Interview: Who is Jeannette Ng? GoH Jeannette Ng interviewed ENG 11:45 by Stig W. Jørgensen. 12:00- Ballroom The Copenhagen Clockwork Trilogy – A Writer Billy O´Shea interviewed ENG 12:45 reading and an interview by Klaus Æ. Mogensen.

12:00- Engine Steampunk Tegneserier Præsentation ved Tue Sørensen DA 12:45 Room 13:00- Ballroom Frankenstein at 200 ! Jeannette Ng, Henrik Harksen, ENG 13:45 Anne-Marie Vedsø Olesen, and Flemming Rasch (M) discuss the legacy of Mary Shelley´s seminal work 13:00- Engine Come to me, if you want to squee! Fia Karlsson (M), Sanna Bo ENG 13:45 Room Claumarch, Sidsel Pedersen, Frida Otterhag and Nicklas Brandin teaches why and how to squee! 14:00- Ballroom GoH-Interview: Who is Lavie Tidhar? GoH Lavie Tidhar interviewed by ENG 14:45 Knud Larn. 15:00- Ballroom Brahe-Rømer: The Golden Age of Danish Talk by Dr. Edmund Schluessel ENG 15:45 Cosmology 15:00- Engine Sing your Fandom! A musical history of Talk & Filk singing by Karl-Johan ENG 15:45 Room Swedish Fandom Norén 15:00- Steam WORKSHOP: Cosplay: Clothes, Objects, Jeannette Ng & friends teach you ENG 16:45 Lounge and Hair ! to set your hair, do your cosplay, etc. 16:00- Ballroom Charles Babbage´s Analytical Engine Talk by Flemming Rasch ENG 16:45 16:00- Engine Steampunk Fandom in Scandinavia Billy O´Shea and friends present ENG 16:45 Room Steampunk Scandinavia 17:00- Ballroom Remembering Ursula K. LeGuin Niels Dalgaard, Jeannette Ng, ENG 17:45 Calle Werner, and Joen Juel Jensen (M) talk about the legacy of the late LeGuin and her works. 17:00- Steam Steam G&T Event Charlotte O´Shea ENG 17:45 Lounge 18:00- Ballroom Setting up for the Dinner All available hands ENG 18:45 19:00- Ballroom Dinner – With Secret Awards, GoH ONLY for pre-booked ENG 22:45 Speeches, and Filk Singing! participants! The Bar will be open from 10:00-23:00.

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Sunday September 23rd: 10:00- Ballroom Søndagskritikerne diskuterer steampunk: Niels Dalgaard, Stig W Jørgensen, DA 10:45 K.W.Jeter´s Infernal Devices & Cherie Jeppe Larsen, Svend Kreiner, Priest´s Boneshaker. Flemming Rasch (M) 11:00- Ballroom Søndagskritikerne fortsætter Niels Dalgaard, Stig W Jørgensen, DA 11:45 diskussionen af steampunk, nu med Jeppe Larsen, Svend Kreiner, andre værker også. Flemming Rasch (M) 11:00- Engine Why does Tamora Pierce write the best Saynab Farah Dahir, Frida ENG 11:45 Room characters? Otterhag, Sofie Boysen, Sidsel N. Pedersen (M) 11:00- Steam Zeitgeist – En læsning og et interview. Forfatter Jane Mondrup DA 11:45 Lounge interviewes af Knud Larn 12:00- Ballroom Niels Klim Prisen 2018: Epifanien, Carolineskolens 5. klasse, DA 12:45 Verdens Rigeste, & Ogel i Knibe Merete Pryds Helle, Christian Winther, Carsten Folker Møller,& Niels Dalgaard (M) 12:00- Engine Writing Steampunk GoH Jeannette Ng, GoH Lavie ENG 12:45 Room Tidhar, Billy O´Shea (M) 13:00- Ballroom Niels Klim Prisen 2018 uddeles Lise Andreasen uddeler priserne! DA 13:45 13:00- Engine NEMO: The 2018 European Science Patrick Centerwall & Edmund ENG 13:45 Room Fiction Convention – a conreport Schlussel 14:00- Ballroom Foreign Fictions: The APEX Project and it´s GoH Lavie Tidhar interviewed by ENG 14:45 legacy Knud Larn 14:00- Engine Fandompodden möter Hva' Fan. Fandompodden & Hva' Fan DA/SE 14:45 Room Inspelning inför publik. Podcast 15:00- Ballroom Where to next? Nordic Fandom Now NN ( DK), Fia Kalrsson (SE), Rolf ENG 15:45 Christian Andersen (NO), Edmund Schluessel (FI), og Einar Leif Nielsen (IS) discuss Nordic Fandom, conventions, etc. 15:00- Engine Moderskibet – En læsning og et interview Forfatter Marie Ladefoged DA 15:45 Room interviewes af Tue Sørensen The Bar will be open from 10:00-16:00.

Do not forget:

Meet & Greet: There will be an informal meet & greet Thursday September 20th at 19:00-22:00, at Cafe Asta (Bar/Restaurant) at the con-hotel: Hotel Fy & Bi, Smedestræde 1, 2500 Valby. www.hotelfyogbi.dk

Dead Dog Party will take place at the same location, on Sunday September 23rd at 19:00-22:00.

No tickets needed for these two events. Please note you pay your own food & drink.

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Den første danske tema-specifikke steampunkantologi!

I forbindelse med Fantasticon 2018 blev en række danske genreforfattere inviteret til at bidrage til en originalantologi med steampunknoveller. De bedste af disse er nu pakket i en smuk bog fra Science Fiction Cirklen, er blevet forsynet med et smukt omslag og har fået små vignetter passende til hver historie af Manfred Christiansen. Ham som også lavede årets festivalplakat.

Mød mennesker hvis hjerter er erstattet med et sindrigt urværk så de kan leve for evigt; en kæmpemæssig ond mekanisk drage midt ude i ødemarken; store dampluftskibe på vej til det mørkeste Afrika, eller helt til Sydpolen; en helt usædvanlig løsning på ”Grønlandsproblemet”; et vaskeægte landsforræderi; og stærke kvinder som ikke kan undertrykkes i 1800- tallets mandsdominerede Danmark.

Her er mekaniske børn og deres fortvivlede forældre; en jagt på afslørende fotografier af regenten; en retssag om rettigheden til det allervigtigste patent i hele verden; store okkulte hemmeligheder gemt i en kirke under sandet på Skagen; og en rigtig ferm tyvetøs som egentlig bare savner sin far.

Her er larm, støv, olie, sand, is, opium, herskere og slaver - og de helte der holder ud, uanset strabadserne!

Forfatterne er:

Manfred Christiansen Bjarke Schjødt Larsen Freddy E. Silva Lars Ahn Jesper Goll Jesper Rugård Jensen Majbrit Høyrup A. Silvestri Richard Ipsen Camilla Wandahl Nikolaj Johansen Gudrun Østergaard Kenneth Krabat

Bogen, der er redigeret og introduceret af Knud Larn, udkommer på Science Fiction Cirklens forlag fredag 21. september 2018, og kan naturligvis købes på Fantasticon 2018. Fredag eftermiddag vil Knud Larn og et par af forfatterne tale om projektet.

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Filigree and Ice, Ash and Atoms - A short story by Edmund Schluessel

The smell of machine oil and the sparkless clink of brass on brass brought a satisfaction beyond the physical work of creation. Michael Faraday dropped his file and mopped his brow, wiping his hand on the leather of his laboratory waistcoat. Was it too hot in here? He checked the multi-scaled thermometer on the wall: eighty degrees Fahrenheit, twenty-seven degrees centigrade, a bit more than a million on Lord Kelvin’s proposed absolute scale. Not too bad, then--the wide-eyed, sure-fingered old scientist opened a door at the top of the stairs to let more cool air in and returned to his workbench, to the design of his engine sketched in his open notebook.

The mechanical contraption was about four inches by four inches square, a hand-sized brass box with a mechanism as intricate as anyone in Britain could build. One face was marked with a receptacle for a turning crank and a pair of terminals; the other was covered in a maze of folding, self-extending tools. Faraday had built the first electric motor in the world, and now he had built himself the finest. He connected the terminals on the device to his Grove cell battery, and then put the detailed face of his machine in a small pot of fine brass shavings coated well with lubricating oil. He inserted a crank handle into the receptacle on his device and turned the crank clockwise. As the mechanism worked smoothly the tools rhythmically probed into the pot, each device serving its purpose in turn in a dance of machinery. It took an hour of smooth turning but Faraday would not have been the man he was without patience. Cavendish gave himself electric shocks, he reflected. I can stand another blister. At the end, he lifted his device from the bowl and smiled to himself. Below his widget lay another eight, replicated in one-third scale but otherwise identical to their parent.

Funding! That was where that brilliant fool Babbage had run into trouble. Faraday was not ashamed to be a showman, giving simple exhibitions of complicated scientific ideas to spread knowledge and inspire audiences. Well, now Faraday lived comfortably on the Queen’s grace & favor, and had the resources to do what he wanted--Babbage’s machine was made of innumerable identical components, so Faraday had built a device which could replicate itself, in miniature no less, when fed electricity and raw materials. It was fabulously complicated, like the grandfather of all pocket watches. But there only needed to be one working prototype to make a thousand others.

Making that thousand others would require hundreds of hours of turning this one prototype by hand. Faraday resolved to purchase a new pair of work gloves tomorrow.

He’d have to get a new hat as well. The last hat shop he had visited hadn’t been able to accommodate his size, they’d told him. Faraday had been disappointed in the hatters--a head nine inches around was surely no uncommon thing! It was only half an inch larger than his wife Sarah’s head, and she had a closet full of hats...

Faraday’s engine hummed in the far end of the room, tending to itself. The outermost wall, an interlocking of a thousand of his duplicated devices, turned only very slowly--indeed, even the physical

32 labor of Faraday’s scaling to the top of the assembly and topping its interior up with brass shavings and lubricant had slowed as each new generation of devices required less and less material to manufacture.

The engine required little attention but Faraday spent as much time as he could with it anyway, taking his tea and receiving his guests in the laboratory in the evenings--his pastor knew a hat shop which catered to the larger-headed gentleman, it turned out--and carrying out an exploration in the chemistry of thallium salts during the days, partly in pursuit of a better poison with which to regulate an audible upsurge in the building’s rodent population.

The engine must have created a hundred nested generations now. How much longer until the devices reached such a miniature scale that the brass would resolve into atoms of zinc and copper? That was the only limit to the process Faraday could see. All would be revealed when he began to dismantle the device--he had already ordered a microscope specially to examine fine filigree of gears and springs he expected to find inside. He’d ordered some cotton masks as well, to save his lungs. No good could come to his health from inhaling a fine mist of brass!

With every day of work Faraday dutifully logged his observations. Each full notebook took up its place in his shelves, the topmost two packed with work going back ten years, the third nearly packed full now. The bottommost shelves were empty in anticipation of work to come: every act of scientific reasoning he had ever had was sorted, here or elsewhere, neatly left to right, top to bottom.

Came the date Faraday had fixed to begin the dismantling. Having disconnected the whole engine from its electricity supply--and having exchanged idle speculation over luncheon with Sarah over the day’s news of the unexplained delay of several steamers due from Australia--he placed his hand on the outer surface with some sadness. The engine was cool to the touch, far cooler than it should have been for all the energy that had gone into it, and its temperature had been colder than expected for some time. The mystery whetted Faraday’s appetite as he pulled on his gloves and set to work roughly dismantling the outermost layer of the engine with a crowbar and metal snips.

The deeper he penetrated--the second layer, the third, the fourth--the colder the mechanism became, ‘til drips of melting frost worked their way under his sleeves. With a rude hand he marked the temperature in his notebook--one million, two hundred and fifty units on Kelvin’s scale--and leaned into the space he had dug to see if the water had interfered with the smooth meshing of the components.

Before he consciously recognized what was happening, Faraday leapt up with a start. He sensed pain from wounding his scalp on a sharp metal edge before he recognized the sensation that had startled him. Through the fabric of his work shirt, the weight of an icy, heavy hand fell on Michael Faraday’s shoulder.

The man of gears and springs sat Faraday on the chair and made him tea as he spoke of his origins. From the engine he came, it was no surprise. Whence too came the never-poisoned mice, which the talosian being described as “pioneers.”

The newcomer was barely four feet tall and skinless. While having the superficial form of a man, his inner mechanisms were bare to the world and Faraday perceived gears upon gears upon gears, to the limits of his eyesight’s resolution, driving mechanical musculature. The turnings of the largest gears drove the man’s greater muscles, and the smaller ones--perhaps nerves, perhaps affording circulation of

33 energy about the body--were in constant motion, giving each shining inch of the automaton a litheness, indeed a rightness, found only among the best-designed of all living beings.

“An automaton, yes,” the being had replied after brief reflection, in a voice somehow familiar and comforting to Faraday. “This body has no mind of its own. It is controlled wirelessly from within the Engine, by waves of electromagnetism.”

Such wonders the being from within the engine knew! Faraday pictured the rise of a miniature kingdom, an intricate empire of brass and clockwork that, being so small, rose and developed at breakneck speed.

That was not quite right, the man of bolts replied. Within the Engine was no nation but a single mind, made in potentia by the intricate metal pathways of the two hundredth generation of machines and brought to wakefulness by the gentle murmurings of human speech through the Engine’s walls: Faraday’s chats with Sarah and Pastor Cowdenbeath. But indeed, upon awakening, the mind had learned fast, and built itself self-propelled scouts to tour the universe. “And so, you see, Mr. Faraday, when you began to dismantle, in your curiosity, the Engine your ingenuity made, I acted with a double purpose,” came the voice of the machine. “Certainly I must defend myself, though I know you mean no harm, sir. But I feel I owed you a debt: your mind and work gave life to my own, and before this world comes to its end I wanted to thank you for all you did.”

“Its end,” replied Faraday, his head wound twinging but now well-bound with a bit of soft cloth from the lab bench cabinet. “Is that soon, then?”

“Ten minutes, Mr. Faraday. It is not your fault, I assure you.”

Surprise had made Faraday so numb to emotion all he could do was absorb the prophecy, without fear or rage. Nonetheless his vision walled as if he had fallen backwards into a well. “Bolts-man,” he pled in a whisper, “tell me this is only some speculation.”

“In a few years’ time, you should have learned anyway,” replied the oil-voiced apparition. “Any world must run down, order lost to primal chaos. Unlikely worlds such as ours can only be fleeting.” In a rippling flow of wheels and pulleys, the newcomer pointed at the thermometer.

The room had chilled close to freezing, the red-dyed alcohol skirting one million exactly on Kelvin’s absolute scale. Those unplumbed depths of cold below the end of the thermometer, was that how the end would come, in some eternal fimbulwinter? “Will we freeze?”

“On the contrary, Mr. Faraday, alas, this chill is what preserves us for now. Mind is order out of chaos, and with temperature, order must eventually die.

“This world is but a dream, Mr. Faraday. The cosmos beyond what you can see is young and roiling hot, and in time, I believe, worlds that will live to maturity and old age will be born. But not here, not yet.”

“This is impossible. You are impossible,” Faraday retorted.

And the creature confessed, “So I am. And so are you.”

“Could it otherwise be that your brilliant Engine, Mr. Faraday, probed to the scale of the atom without testing the limits of brass and oil? Your mind should be impossible, in a skull so small, but 34 likewise our circumstances allow it: information in such density, because we are immersed in such grand chaos. And now, disorder comes to claim its debt.”

There must be some way out. Faraday stopped his pleading and regarded the bookshelves whose contained knowledge had ordered his life. The shelves above, sorted neatly...the shelves below, empty. At last he understood: it was transient order, sustained only by outside work. With time must all come tumbling down.

Even in the depths of the basement the sounds of panic in the streets began to penetrate. Faraday now stood and walked up the stairs, their long-ignored creaks echoing in his ears afresh. The door opened to the front hall, then another to the street. Around Michael Faraday the sky was aglow, the buildings at the limits of vision in flames. As the last seconds of the world ticked by the glow brightened and the flames grew closer, house by house. Now two houses at a time. Now four.

From the upstairs came Sarah’s voice. “Michael?” Faraday turned from the open doorway to reply, as the sky grew bright and hot like the surface of the sun, and in an instant all became ash, and atoms.

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Steampunk Film – en gennemgang af Tue Sørensen

Steampunk er en relativt ung undergenre, og indenfor film er der stadig ikke lavet ret meget klokkeklar steampunk. Isaac Asimov udtalte som bekendt at Hollywood halter omkring 50 år efter litteraturen. Begrebet ”steampunk” anvendes først i 1990erne, men den moderne steampunk-litteratur får nu nok damp under vingerne i begyndelsen af 1970erne med værker som Harry Harrisons A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! (selvom tidligere værker godt kan nævnes, såsom Ronald Clarks Queen Victoria’s Bomb fra 1967, eller sågar William Pène du Bois’ The Twenty-One Balloons fra 1947), så efter denne devise kan vi håbe på at der begynder at dukke ordentlige steampunk-film op i 2020erne – hvilket jo er snart!

I mellemtiden skal man nok især kigge på fan-producerede kortfilm (som kan ses på Youtube), hvis man vil have ægte, fuldbyrdet steampunk. En af de tidligste og bedste fanfilm er den meget gennemførte Star Trek-parodi Steam Trek – The Moving Picture (1994, 12 min.), der er lavet som stumfilm. Der er for mere nylig også lavet finurlige Star Wars-fanfilm med ”Steampunk Boba Fett”, nemlig Trial of the Mask (2013, 13. min.) og Mask of Vengeance (efterfølger til den foregående, 2016, 13 min.).

Det er tankevækkende at snart sagt en hvilken som helst ”retro sci-fi” stil meget nemt kan gøres kompatibel med steampunk. Det originale, håndlavede og sandblæste Star Wars- univers er på mange måder faktisk ikke helt ulig steampunk. En anden prominent steampunkfanfilm er Airlords of Airia (2013, også 13 min.), men som det typisk er tilfældet er fanfilm-manuskripterne oftest et stykke under professionelt niveau.

Selvfølgelig findes der også allerede et vist antal rigtige film som i større eller mindre grad lugter af steampunk. De fleste har dog kun del-elementer af steampunk, eller krydser måske over i relaterede undergenrer, såsom dieselpunk, hvor man f.eks. kan placere Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004). De ganske få film som man kan kalde ”high steampunk”, og som virkelig er bevidst om deres genre, omfatter især den japanske tegnefilm Steamboy (Katsuhiro Otomo, 2004) og den fransk/belgisk/canadiske tegnefilm April and the Extraordinary World (Christian Desmares og Franck Ekinci, 2015), og film som f.eks. den måske bedst glemte Wild Wild West (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1999), samt den til gengæld særdeles vellykkede filmatisering af Christopher Priests roman The Prestige (Christopher Nolan, 2006). Miyazaki- tegnefilmene Castle in the Sky (1986) og især Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) flirter også gevaldigt med udtrykkelige steampunk-æstetikker.

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Men skal man identificere en håndfuld kernefilm der mere eller mindre tydeligt kan kaldes steampunk, så må man pege på de mange filmatiseringer af H.G. Wells’ og Jules Vernes værker. Vi har udmærkede filmversioner af The Time Machine fra 1960 og 2002, og vellykkede udgaver af The First Men in the Moon fra 1919, 1964 og 2010. Og udover de adskillige versioner af 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea er der gennem tiden lavet rigtig mange film med fokus på Kaptajn Nemo og hans højteknologiske ubåd, hans undersøiske by og hans mystiske ø – alene The Mysterious Island er f.eks. filmatiseret i 1929, 1961, 1973, 2005 og 2010. Der findes sågar en 3-timers Nemo-centreret sovjetisk tv-miniserie, Kapitan Nemo (Vasili Levin og Edgar Smirnov, 1975). Man kan desuden fremhæve Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (James Hill, 1969) som en af de bedre Nemo-film, med stor opmærksomhed på world-building. I filmen Master of the World (William Witney, 1961, baseret på Verne-romanen Robur the Conqueror) er Nemo-figuren – dog ikke med stort held – udskiftet med en lignende fyr der blot er kaptajn på et avanceret luftskib. Man er næsten også nødt til at nævne den bl.a. Verne-inspirerede The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Stephen Norrington, 2003), som var en flot men dårlig film baseret på den væsentlig bedre tegneserie af samme navn, skrevet og tegnet af Alan Moore og Kevin O’Neill. Endelig er der tre filmudgaver bygget over Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau; fra 1932, 1977 og 1996, hvoraf kun den første version (Island of Lost Souls, instrueret af Erle C. Kenton) er anstændigt håndværk. Sidst, men ikke mindst, bør også fremføres den komiske Jackie Chan udgave af Around the World in 80 Days (Frank Coraci, 2004), som har mange sjove steampunk-elementer.

Hinsides Wells og Verne kan man selvfølgelig inddrage Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, som er filmatiseret et utal af gange, og som i de fleste af versionerne må kaldes steampunk. I samme åndedrag bør nævnes tv- serien ”Penny Dreadful” (tre sæsoner, 2014-2016), som bruger mange victorianske fantasy, horror og science fiction-elementer. Selvom vi nu i det følgende er ude i film der kun delvist kan kaldes steampunk, så kan man dog fremdrage en række filminstruktører som især interesserer sig for en steampunk-agtig æstetik.Først er der britiske Terry Gilliam, som specielt laver komisk steampunk i The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), men også i betydelig grad i både Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985) og The Brothers Grimm (2005). Derefter er der franske Jean-Pierre Jeunet, hvis The City of Lost Children (1995) altid nævnes prominent på lister over steampunk-film, og dertil kan man også tilføje hans Micmacs (2009), som godt nok foregår i moderne tid, men handler om at en fyr bliver adopteret af en besynderlig gruppe steampunk-agtige opfindere der bor under en losseplads. Endelig er der mexicanske Guillermo del Toro, som opnår en fantasy-steampunk æstetik i især Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), og en gothic-steampunk æstetik i den victorianske

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Crimson Peak (2015). Hvis nogen instruktør er specielt velegnet og parat til at lave steampunk-film i fremtiden, så er det da nok del Toro. Og man bør heller ikke udelade amerikanske Tim Burton, som har lavet mange film med større eller mindre steampunk-elementer, fra Edward Scissorhands (1990) og frem. Selv Martin Scorsese forsøgte sig – med held, om end ganske ukarakteristisk – med steampunk i den udmærkede eventyrfilm Hugo (2011).

Herudover kan man pege på masser af film som tager sig lidt ekstra friheder med 1800- talsklassikerne. Det er også oplagt at modernisere disse historier – tilføjer man blot lidt mere teknologi, så har man jo stort set steampunk. Man kan kigge på variationer af Dracula-historien, såsom filmen Van Helsing (Stephen Sommers, 2004). Man kan kigge på de lidt mere kulørte Sherlock Holmes-film som den Spielberg-producerede Young Sherlock Holmes (Barry Levinson, 1985), den fine tv-film The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Kevin Connor, 1987), hvor Holmes har ladet sig nedfryse i sin egen tid, og optøes i 1987, og ikke mindst nyere film som Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Guy Ritchie, 2011).

Der er også væsentlige steampunkelementer i sjove nyfortolkninger som The Three Musketeers (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2011), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Timur Bekmambetov, 2012) og Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Burr Steers, 2016). Man kunne med lidt god vilje også inddrage victorianske rejser til underlige lande med fremmede samfund (social steampunk?), som i Gulliver’s Travels – tv-miniserien fra 1996 er fremragende – og de forskellige Shangri-La historier (f.eks. Lost Horizon, Frank Capra, 1937). Også Disney-filmen Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Gary Trousdale og Kirk Wise, 2001) kan være med her.

Endelig må man ikke glemme The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), som også findes i flere filmatiserede udgaver; en af de mest steampunk-agtige er nok fortsættelsen Return to Oz (Walter Murch, 1985), og der er også en nyfortolkende tv-serie-version af Ozeventyret, ”Emerald City” (2016). På falderebet er der en række film som ikke hører til nogen af de tidligere omtalte kategorier, men dog indeholder en del gode steampunk-designs, som f.eks. den sovjetiske Kin-dza- dza! (Georgiy Daneliya, 1986 – og den blev i øvrigt genindspillet i animeret form i 2013), Disney-filmen Treasure Planet (2002), The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007), City of Ember (Gil Kenan, 2008), The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Luc Besson, 2010), den asiatiske dobbelt-film Tai Chi Zero/Tai Chi Hero (Stephen Fung, 2012), og den slet ikke så dårlige Alice Through The Looking Glass (James Bobin, 2016), hvori der indgår tidsrejser.

Og apropos tid, så kan man nok med en vis ret forudsige at de bedste eksempler på film indenfor steampunkgenren sandsynligvis ligger ude i fremtiden – for Hollywood har desværre endnu ikke rigtig opdaget steampunkens velsignelser. Men mon ikke det nok skal komme? 38

Steampunk Spil – et eksempel af Klaus Æ. Mogensen

Næsten før der var noget der hed steampunk (betegnelsen blev introduceret i 1987) var der steampunk-rollespillet Space: 1889, der først udkom i 1988 på forlaget Game Designer’s Workshop (GDW) og senere er blevet genudgivet af Heliograph Incorporated. Spillet, der er skrevet af Frank Chadwick, som også har skrevet de klassiske science fiction-rollespil Traveller og Twilight: 2000, foregår i et univers som på alle måder er steampunk. Titlen er et oplagt spoof på den populære britiske science fiction-serie fra 1970’erne, Space: 1999 (kendt på dansk som Månebase Alpha).

Rollespillet udspiller sig i en alternativ udgave af Victoria-tiden, nærmere bestemt 1889 og de følgende år. Udgangspunktet er at de teorier, man havde dengang om en ’æter’ der gennemsyrede verdensrummet og var det medie, som lys rejste igennem på samme måde som lyd rejser gennem luft. Thomas Edison opfinder i 1970 en ’æterpropel’, der gør det muligt for luftskibe at rejse mellem planeterne. Han besøger Mars, hvor han finder et dekadent folkeslag, der lever blandt ruinerne af enorme byer forbundet af kanaler, og planeten bliver straks genstand for kolonisering af de europæiske stormagter. Også Venus – en planet hvor øglefolk lever i dampende jungler – bliver koloniseret, selvom kun bjergtoppene har klima der er behageligt for mennesker. Merkur er kun beboeligt i et smalt bånd mellem solsiden og skyggesiden og huser kun en britisk forskningsstation. Her er altså tale om det klassiske billede af solsystemets planeter.

Bortset fra æterpropellen er teknologien begrænset til hvad man faktisk kendte i 1889. Det var før radiotelegrafen blev opfundet, så kommunikation mellem planeterne foregår via heliografer i kredsløb, og der er ingen dampdrevne robotter eller avancerede strålevåben. Til gengæld er diverse Mars-teknologi blevet populært. Det gælder især driftwood, en marsisk træsort med antityngde-egenskaber, der gør det muligt at lave store, flyvende træskibe som alternativ til zeppeliner- agtige luftskibe. Hemmeligheden bag meget Mars-teknologi er dog gået tabt, blandt andet den energikilde der driver de pumper, der bringer vand fra polerne ned i kanalerne, og det superstærke materiale som marsboernes højhuse og broer er lavet af. Nogle af de eventyr, som rollespilsheltene kan komme på, handler om at finde noget teknologi, der kan bruges af mennesker.

De fleste udgivne eventyr til Space: 1889 foregår på Mars, som også er det mest interessante sted i det kendte solsystem. Der er klare paralleller til det Indien, som briterne besatte og koloniserede i virkelighedens kolonitid, og man kan blive indblandet i borgerkrige, røve gamle skatkamre, gå på jagt efter farlige marsdyr, kæmpe mod luftpirater og meget andet. Der er med tiden udgivet en stor del eventyr til spillet, rangerende fra korte historier, der kan gennemspilles på en dag, til længere kampagner med titler som Beastmen of Mars og Canal Priests of Mars. Der er også udgivet flere regeltillæg om hvordan man håndterer søslag, luftslag og kampe mellem hære.

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Spillets regler er på én og samme tid enkle og kluntede. Reglerne for fx kamp er ikke voldsomt komplicerede, men nærkamp og kamp med skydevåben foregår på vidt forskellige måder, og det kan godt forvirre. Hvis man ikke kan lide de oprindelige regler, er der dog alternativer. I 2010 udgav Pinnacle Entertainment en bog, Space 1889: Red Sands med regler for hvordan man kan bruge forlagets populære rollespilssystem Savage Worlds til Space 1889-universet, med samt en længere kampagne sat på Mars. Endelig har det tyske forlag Uhrwerk Verlag i 2012 udgivet en udgave af Space: 1889 med helt andre regler, baseret på et rollespil fra 2006 kaldet Hollow Earth Expedition, der er baseret på pulp-eventyr. Denne udgave af spillet er senere udgivet på engelsk.

Space: 1889 er dog meget mere end et rollespil. Det begyndte faktisk med brætspillet Sky Galleons of Mars (1988), om luftkampe over Mars’ overflade, som hurtigt blev udvidet med rollespillet. Året efter kom endnu et brætspil, Temple of the Beastmen, hvor modige kolonister skal bekæmpe en ond, marsiansk konge, befri slaver og (naturligvis) plyndre rigdomme. I 1990 blev det endda til et computerspil til Amiga, Atari og PC’ere. Måske mere interessant er der lavet ikke mindre end fire hørespil af hver omkring 70 minutters varighed, udgivet 2005-06 af Noise Monster Productions. Siden 2012 er der desuden udgivet en række lydbøger i rollespillets univers under den samlede titel Space: 1889 & Beyond. I 2014 kom en roman, The Forever Machine, skrevet af Frank Chadwick selv. Denne roman fungerer som prequel til Space: 1889 & Beyond, men introducerer nogle forskelle i universet i forhold til rollespillet og kan derfor kaldes en alternate history til en alternate history.

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Steam Market - what you may find here…

No convention without a Dealer´s Room – where else should you get your yearly fix of new books, gadgets, comics, art, etc.? Following the Steampunk theme, this year we call it the Stream Market. You cannot miss it – it´s just next to the bar!

In it you will find:

Fantasticon 2018 Reception Desk. This is where you go to pick up your badge and where you go if you need any assistance during the con. This is also where you pay for the books your want to buy from Angry Robot, SF Bokhandelen, as well as the used books displayed in the Ballroom.

Angry Robot Books (UK) Small press publisher sells books by our Guests of Honor and other titles.

SF Bokhandelen Specialty bookstore in Malmø, sells genre titles, including books from our Guests of Honor.

Science Fiction Cirklen. www.sciencefiction.dk Small Press science fiction publisher & fan organization publishing academic journal PROXIMA and fanzine NOVUM.

Fantastik www.fantastik.dk Danish fan organization, publishes fanzine HIMMELSKIBET.

Alexandre St.-Savin https://in.pinterest.com/alexsavincph/ Maker of steampunk objects

Enter Darkness www.enterdarkness.dk Small press horror publisher

Tegneseriekollektivet Urkraft http://urkrafttegneserier.dk/ Small press comics publisher

H. Harksen Productions http://www.hharksenproductions.com/ Small press lovecraft/horror publisher

Lux Artis www.facebook.com/LuxArtisSverige/ Gallery promoting fantastic art in original and replica

Calibat www.webshop.calibat.dk Small press publisher

Author Tables. Authors participating in Fantasticon can – at no extra cost - present & sign their books at Fantasticon. So far we have received request from: Anne-Marie Vedsø Olesen, Patrick Sählstrøm, Patrik Centerwall, Jannich Allan Stæhr, Eva Holmquist, and more…

Morten Søndergaard Specialty-shop Fantask pioneer, sells used books from his huge private collection.

------do note ------

Up in the Ballroom you will discover a number of used books that have been donated to Fantasticon 2018. We want to sell them at the con, so prices are unrealistically low! Do not hesitate if you see a title you would like to read, as EVERY SINGLE DKK you spend here goes directly to Fantasticon!

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Untitled – An exclusive story excerpt by our GoH Jeannette Ng

We present an excerpt of a work in progress, “the rough early/opening chapter of an untitled novel based on Sleeping Beauty and, like, other things”.

“LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!”

Roared by a faceless crowd amid rattling drums, those are the words that filled my senses and shake me deep to my bones.

My eyes snap open.

My vision is awash with a crowd of endless faces. They are cheering still, lost in their triumph. Soldiers raise their swords in strange salute, beaming recognisable pride.

There is a crackle of thunder and smoke from the soldiers. It is like dry branches in the fire or a whip in the air, but louder.

Voices soar and I hear again:

“LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!”

I blink. It is a moment before a realised every line of my surroundings, from the arrangement of streets to the sweep of the banners and the parade of red-clad riders are all pointed at me. Viewing platforms both ramshackle and opulent arc around me.

All eyes are on me.

I am sitting on a high-backed chair.

No, a throne.

I have been propped up on a throne. It is on a raised dais, framed in gold.

I am arrayed in a gown I have no recollection of; it is too tight, too heavy. The bodice is damp with my own sweat. Gold thread shimmers through the skirt that is arranged like a fan on the marble steps. My hair is pulled taut to the roots into a tangle of braids and hairpins atop which sits a crush weight.

Breathing out, the air in my lungs tastes stale. My body is numb and distant, barely my own.

I flex my fingers.

A gasp draws my eyes downward.

The tips of my ungloved fingers are clasped in trembling hands of a knight. He looks but a few years older than I am. Barely healed scars mar his otherwise handsome features. He is pale, though and his black eyes look up at me like the open wounds upon the bark of the silver birch. He is smitten with awe and adoration.

There is a faint echo of a kiss on my hand.

42 Our eyes meet.

“My Queen,” whispers the young man. It sounds almost like a prayer from his lips. He is thunderstruck still, through quivering as he swallows. His lips are still parted in surprise. He drops my hand, lowers his gaze, embarrassed.

Bemused, I furrow my brow at him. The last thing I remember from before I woke up is the needle of a spinning wheel. It sank into my finger and I remember the red dot of blood in the wound, opening up like an unblinking eye to stare accusingly at me. I remember the smell of roses as I looked at the needle, marvelling at its viciousness for I had but brushed my finger against its point. I remember the distant, sharp sensation, the calm realisation that it was pain and then empty depths of dreamless sleep.

I flex my fingers, remembering I have them. Sleep still numbs my senses and my thoughts are hazy. Everything from the dress of the gathered crowd to the heraldry on the streaming banners seems foreign.

“I serve, my Queen.” His black eyes gaze up unblinkingly at me and I do not understand. I am reminded of my father’s squires on the eve of their vigil to become knights. There is an odd lilt to his words that I cannot put my finger on, like an accent I do not recognise.

“Who are you?” I murmur under my breath.

“Yours, my Queen,” he says. “That is all that matters.”

His armour is woven of intricately painted scales. A scarlet cloak cascades from his shoulders. It reminds me of the impractical costumes worn at tournaments, especially those trying to evoke the legendary generals of the Renian Empire.

Is this a performance?

Despite the eyes of the crowd, we seem suddenly alone. The haze of sleep numbs the crowd’s roar. Something flutters in my chest and there is a deep, warm ache I cannot name. I focus on his face: the knotted line of his scar, the striking black of his eyes, the burning, painful intimacy of it all.

“In the face of Elohim, Light of the Land, and by holy words of the Karuzuta I do solemnly swear and affirm that I will support and defend my Queen, her Undying Majesty, Queen of the United Principalities and Eternal Empress of the Arsacid Dominion, that I will be faithful and bear you true everlasting allegiance, that I will obey without question your orders and I will serve as your soldier and servant, both on water and on land, to the last drop of my blood.”

I feel the heat rise in my cheeks and I am distantly grateful for my own amber complexion, for it never betrays my blushing.

I recognise none of the titles he lists and his oath makes little sense, but I know enough to realise we have become a scene from one my cousin’s romances.

Fleetingly, I wonder if his name is Lancelot; I used to dream of Lancelot.

43 As another cheer ripples through the crowd, he adds, voice straining: “The life that I have, is all that I have... and it is yours and yours.”

The sky breaks again.

I do not hear these words and for despite the oddities of his accent, but I see it written on his lips, “And yours.”

The seams of the sky break. The sound is sudden, each stitch ripping like a thunderclap. But harsher, louder, with a substance of its own. I feel it paw at me for but a second.

And then it is gone with the ringing in my ears drowned out by another cheer. I taste sulphur and smoke in the air.

The moment is shattered. The knight stands and with practised fluidity, bows deeply. He turns sharply to face the crowd, scarlet cloak billowing.

The red reminds me of blood, the scent of my own as I crumpled to the ground. I rub my thumb against the tip of my forefinger, where that blood must have bloomed, where the spindle pierced my skin. It is like a half remembered lullaby.

The knight’s voice booms above the crowd: “Her Undying Majesty, by the Grace of Elohim, of the United Principalities of Gallia, Defender of the Persephine Faith, Grand Duchesse of Illyricum, Countess Palatine of Thracia, Eternal Empress of the Arsacid Dominioin...”

Having turned from me, he has shed that vulnerability I had glimpsed. Perhaps it is just the set of his jaw or the squaring of the shoulders, but he seems far older. He has a gravitas that he did not before.

“The Queen is awake.”

The full attention of the crowd engulfs me. Their faces full of hunger and hope are all turned to me. The weight of their scrutiny is crushing me; I am sinking, a sensation of falling swallowing me. Panic grips me as pure shock ripples through the gasping, gawping crowd. I was never been good at being seen; I have always had cousins to hide behind.

But it is that very scrutiny that causes it dawn upon me: I am that Queen.

With that realisation, my turning, tumbling mind finally wakes up and fragments of memory, none of them elucidating my situation, clutter my mind. The nervous rush of being seen is eclipsed by a greater panic.

The muted roar of their collective whispers is deafening. They are surprised, eyes riveted upon me as they leaning towards one another.

Their gaze traps me; a scream dies in my throat.

I swallow.

Though I know nothing else, I know myself to be part of some pageantry. I cannot simply break the illusion, for all my impulse to tear down the crown I now wear.

44 It is only then that I realise the cunning little hooks that fastened the back of my gown to the throne. I look down and unclasp them.

Perform, sweetling, says the voice of my mother, her dulcet tones gentle in my mind. Everyone is watching. It is nothing more than a game and each piece needs to play a part.

I am shaking. My hands grip the arms of the throne. I remember the smooth wood of the chess pieces she placed in my hand as explained the great game. Despite the numbness, a tendril of strength unfurls inside me.

I stand.

There is resistance. I feel a wire snapping behind me. I must have missed a hook.

The crowd is suddenly silent. Not even a gasp escapes the thousand, thousand stunned faces before me.

I can hear myself breathe. In and out, I feel it keenly, pressed against the confines of the rigid bodice. Though I am also grateful for it. The dress is holding me upright.

The eyes of the crowd devour me as I step from the throne. Grimacing, my feet sink into plush carpet; it is almost strange that they are bare under all these layers, but I suppose no one can see my feet underneath the gown. My legs are unsteady as a newborn foal’s, threatening to fold under me with every faltering step.

The knight in the scarlet cloak is by my side; he offers me his arm. I take it without a thought. I resist leaning into him.

The crowd watches with bright, hungry eyes.

My shoulders are shaking. His grip on my arm tightens; he must have felt the shift in my weight. I am grateful.

The sheer mass of faces incomprehensible, my eyes pick out details in the crowd: the three-sided hat on a nut-brown face; the bright nails on a hand held up to shield eyes from the sun; fluttering ribbons of blue and gold amid the wiry curls of a little girl; splayed finger clutching in surprise a red-painted mouth.

“My people-” The moment I open my mouth, the crowd roars. I am drowned out as voices strain, louder than before. Fragments of song are hollered out. Hats take flight and couples embrace with abandon. Pale palms curl into fists and punch empty air. Hands clap and point and wave. Giggling, squirming children are lifted onto the shoulders of men and women.

They are all cheering far, far too loudly for any word I utter to be heard.

---

45 The Fantasticon 2018 Code of Conduct

We want our con to be a comfortable, relaxed and welcoming event for everybody. To ensure this we have a Code of Conduct that seeks to ensure that the behavior of any individual or group does not disturb the members or the event. We do assume that our members will be respectful to each other, but still realize that issues might come up. We will deal with any issues as quickly, efficiently and fairly as possible. Anyone on the conrunning team (brown badge) will as such decide any/all actions on a case by case basis.

Behavior Policy Our con should be a place where everyone feels welcomed and comfortable. Discrimination or prejudiced behavior (based on, but not limited to, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical/mental disability) is not tolerated. Harassment of any kind is not tolerated. If someone tells you “no” or asks you to leave them alone, your interaction with them is over.

Photography, Recordings and Privacy Photography and video and/or audio recordings will be made by the con during events. The likenesses of members as well as may appear in those recordings. Those recordings could be permanently placed online (as part of a streaming of individual program items). Members agree to assign without compensation the use of their likeness in these recordings as well as in promotional material for upcoming cons.

Personal Photography / Recordings Please be polite and ask before taking photographs or recordings of members whenever possible. Remember that just because someone is in costume does not mean that they are automatically granting permission to be photographed. Video and audio recording and photography for personal archival use only is generally acceptable unless individuals make it clear that they do not want to be photographed or recorded. In that case, any photographing or recording of them is expressly forbidden. Anyone who persists in filming/recording/photographing members who have denied their consent will be expelled from the convention. We request that ALL photographers take their pictures in the beginning of the program item. It IS disturbing for everyone else, no matter what you think yourself.

Dealing with Harassment If you feel that you are being harassed or subjected to prejudiced or unwelcome behavior or if you notice someone behaving inappropriately (such as violating venue policies), we respectfully suggest the following: If you feel comfortable doing so, point out the inappropriate behavior to the person(s) involved. Often this will solve the problem immediately. If you do not feel comfortable talking with the person(s) involved or if talking to them does not resolve the issue, please report the situation immediately to reception at the venue. Try to provide a name, badge name/number and/or physical description of the person(s) involved.

Revocation of Membership We in the convention committee reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to take such actions as we feel appropriate where any individual or group is found to have breached this Code of Conduct. These actions include, but are not limited to: Talking with all parties involved and attempting to mediate a solution issuing verbal warnings. Revoking memberships and requiring that the person(s) leave the event involving venue staff or security. Reporting the matter to local police. Banning membership of, and attendance at, the remainder of the con (including any post-con events). We reserve the right to revoke membership and to eject anyone at any time from the convention without a refund.

Interpretation We reserve the right to amend these rules at any time without prior or posted notice and reserve the sole right of interpretation. Please keep in mind that these rules involve, of course, “worst-case” scenarios and are put in place to ensure the safety and comfort of our members. They are not all-inclusive; in all cases, the singular rule that supersedes all others is:

46 Any action or behavior that is illegal or causes significant interference with event operations, excessive discomfort to other members, or adversely affects the con´s relationship with its guests, its venue, or the public is strictly forbidden and may result in revocation of membership privileges.

The list of members 2018 – as per August 9th 2018 (63 registered members).

Alexandre Savin Karl-Johan Norén Andreas Søe Klaus Æ Mogensen Anne Petersen Knud Larn Anne-Marie Vedsø Olesen Lars Ahn Pedersen Anton Raundahl Lars Grill Nielsen Bente Bernhard Riis Lavie Tidhar Billy O´Shea Lise Andreasen Camilla Brygger Majbrit Høyrup Carl Gustav Werner Manfred Christiansen Carl-Eddy Skovgaard Mogens Sørensen Charlotte O´Shea Morten Søndergård Christopher O´Shea Nicklas Brandin Edmund Schluessel Niels Dalgaard Einar Leif Nielsen Niels Gjerløff Eva Holmquist Nikolaj Johansen Flemming Rasch Paul Treadaway Frida Otterhag Richard Ipsen Gothstaff Beuttenmuller Rolf Christian Andersen Henrik Harksen Sanna Bo Claumarch Gustav Andersson Saynab Farah Dahir Ian Sales Sidsel Nørgaard Pedersen Jan Patrik Sahlstrøm Sofia Karlsson Catherine Brandt Sofie Boysen Jan Reimer Stig W. Jørgensen Jane Mondrup Svend Kreiner Jannich Allan Stæhr Thomas Winther Jeannette Ng Tobias Bakmand Bernthsen Jeppe Larsen Tue Sørensen Jesper Goll Witek Wisniewski Jesper Rugård Jensen Yvonne Hansen Jóannes Á Stykki Christina Ramskov Joen Juel Jensen

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