Paragon 2 PR 2

EX = BASS] we Eastercon: RISD, The British National Science Fiction EBX 6S 25-28" March 2005 Convention PARAGON2 Hanover International Hinckley : Progress Report 2 April 2004 Contents: Contace ImienmanOM aaheseoee 2 Wikatisea cep ichOnit.. pict 60)... oeeesCoensAGeena 2 Homa thesepiis oles oOlat kaee 3 KemeMACUCOCn ie no 4 ODEielevaitiaM) saidcgee er ceeTeoeee fs WargeuumeeSiranid:.s 2).o ci)... UReeeeee 10 Richanch WieynojeCh ieeeeee cz Booking flotels-Rodimms... =.es i aces oon te emcs 14 Nemesio list: tps. .cat* Asn... ens ees Be ee8Leee 17 What'ssa SspBadge Namic? (22)... cueceeia 19 Guests of Honour John & Eve Harvey Ben Jeapes Ken MacLeod Richard Morgan Robert Rankin Committee Bran Dowd) Sofa James Bacon #4ee Programme OUMaDaly eeee Programme John Dowd -220.......2..000 Memberships, Hotel Bookings & Finance Nigel Murionge 2955 4.0.8).2082 Ops Sabine PurlOone o. 7h esse eee e ees Ops Alice Lawson 22035 2). ee ere Hotel (Function) & Special Events Steve LaWwSOM 2. r.5.66..5:.. secs sec est cece cc eee Hotel Liaison (Beds) & Registration John Richards. ..:2:...0... ieee eeee. Programme Contact information PR advertising rates Paragon2 Full Page: 4 Burnside Avenue, SHEFFIELD Fan £35 Professional £75 S8 9FR UK Half Page: Fan £20 Professional £40 0114 281 0674 Quarter Page: Fan £10 Professional £25 www.paragon2.org.uk Special arrangements can be madefor [email protected] leaflets or exchanges of ads What’s a... Hero? Glynn Christian (the mutineer’s great- Thoughts on the Philosophical Founda- great-great-great-grandson): “There is tions of Heroism, by Dr Andrew nothing new to say about Bounty, Bligh Bernstein: “What, the first question or Christian ... William Bligh was a mag- must be, is the distinguishing essence of nificent navigator and a truly awful man heroism? What characteristics must one just as Fletcher Christian was a wicked possess to qualify as a hero? Whatis it mutineer and an interesting pioneer of that unites Achilles, Cyrano, Isaac New- democracy and female emancipation.” ton, John Galt and Ayn Rand? Whatisit that differentiates them from: both the Lenin: “All our lives we fought against folks next door, and from Iago, Ellsworth exalting the individual, against the eleva- Toohey, Adolf Hitler, Hilary Clinton? In tion of the single person, and long ago we short, what is the rational meaning of the were over and done with the business of concept “heroism”? a hero, and here it comes up again: the glorification of one personality. This is Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary de- not goodat all. 1 am just like everybody fines “hero as: a) “a mythological or leg- else.” endary figure often of divine descent endowedwith great strength or ability, b) Ralph Waldo Emerson: “A hero is no an illustrious warrior, c) a man admired braver than an ordinary man, but he is for his achievements and noble qualities, - brave five minutes longer.” d) one that shows great courage.” These cont. page 9 Paragon2 - PR2 - Page 2 From the Depthsof the Sofa by Fran Dowd Hello again. With less than a year to go, course (04) announcedthat if they did not everything is starting to gather speed. You have enough advance entries or enquiries can now book yourhotel room, there’s more by April 1st, they would cancel the Mas- detail about that on page 14. We’re work- querade, although they would continue ing on the projects that need lot of ad- with the increasingly popular Hall Costume vance planning - these include the Richard competition. Alice is monitoring the re- III Project - more on page 12. PRsalsoin- sponse and wewill make our decision based clude info on someof the other things we’ve on this. got in mind - this issue features the war- gaming strand (page 10). If we do decide that the Masqueradeis not to go ahead, we will notify you in the next There’s some enclosures with this PR for PR (November 2004). We have a range of you. As well as the Hotel Booking Form ideasto replace it, and will do some of these there’s a Volunteer Form (oneside for Ops, even if we go ahead with the main event. one side for Programme), a Membership These include Hall Costume Competition, Form for any of your friends who haven’t an Easter Bonnet Parade, an Alter Ego Cos- joined yet, and flier - please try and find tume Ball, and the audience participation a local bookshop, work noticeboardorli- costumesfor RichardIII. There will be the brary where this can be displayed. usual capable support of Chaos Costum- ing. This and future PRs will have detailed information about our Guests of Honour - Weare also thinking of running some work- Ken MacLeod and Robert Rankin are our shop items on Masquerading, to support highlighted guests in this issue (pages 4 people who are thinking of entering the and 7). Worldcon Masqueradelater in the year. As I’ve said before, if you would like to be If you have any comments or queries about involved in Paragon2, we would love to hear this, please contact Alice or myself. from you. If you have programmeideas, or wantto write for the publications,it doesn’t Paragon2 Merchandise mean you haveto be involved in running We're experimenting with something new the con on the day. for Paragon2 souvenirs - T-shirts, mouse- mats, tote bags andthelike. We have joined Conversely, if you want to work at the con, forces with a US companycalled CaféPress, it doesn’t mean you have to spend time who producea wide range of products and between now andthenin the planning. print them individually with our designs to your order. Unfortunately, these products Masquerade and Costuming are only available through the souvenirs You may have heard that we’ve announced shop on our website. It does mean, though, that we’re not going to have a Masquerade. that you can have a choice of T-shirts from This isn’t quite true, we have not yet made 6-month baby size up to 4XL, and weve - the final decision. also got a special design for people who prefer to have an image between their boo- Alice Lawson, who’s our committee person bs and not across them. You can even have responsible for special events, has been Paragon2 undies! The service is fast, and running Eastercon Masqueradesfor quite they take credit cards. The greatest benefit some time. She has been watching the for all of us is that we have not had to tie numberof entries slowly decline. At Sea- up your membership money in merchan- con03, there were very few entries, and dise stock. If you visit our desk at conven- none who notified her in advance. Con- tions, we will have samples for you to look at before you order. Paragon2 - PR2 - Page 3 Ken MacLeod by John Richardson If for nothing else Ken MacLeod can be His second book The Stone Canal (1996) remembered for devising the latest format won the 1998 Prometheus Award. For me for the style of science fiction that it was here that Ken really became some- Margaret Atwood does not write. While one to watch out for. Like an lain Banks “squids in space” is hardly a complete de- novel with the pseudonymous middleini- scription of the Engines Of Lighttrilogy, tial flashing on andoff like a faulty neon from that definition it is difficult to iden- sign The Stone Canal alternates between tify another writer from whom she was a cinematically drawn far future and con- attempting to distance her novel Oryx temporary Scotland with the ideas that And Crake. Quite why Ms. Atwood should crop upin late night political arguments be so keen to be seen as “Not Ken in Student Union bars being given flesh. MacLeod”is, of course, a matter of much At once achingly familiar and breathtak- speculation. After all Ken’s works betray ing in its scope and with Ken’s sense of a ready wit, an interest in humanity and politics and sense of humourin top gear. an ability to characterise that quite a few writers, Ms. Atwood among them, might The Cassini Division (1998) broke Ken, by do well to cultivate. now a full time author, into the US. De- spite a personal liking for the previous Described by Salon.com as “the greatest books Patrick Neilson Hayden of Tor living Trotskyist libertarian cyberpunk books had considered them, with their science-fiction humorist” like many of us European style of politics, not suitable for in the underworld of fandom Ken had American publication. Once again Ken been writing since he first discovered SF threw caution to the wind and came up at the age of 13 and collecting the stand- with a lead character who has been de- ard rejection slips. scribed as “the mostevil protagonist in the universe.” Unrepentant, in an inter- “I got a rejection slip from New Worlds view for Locus Ken commented: Quarterly for a story wherethe alien planet turns out to be Earth. Gosh! Too “I certainly don’t think she’s evil from a radical for New Worlds, obviously. Pity I human point of view, and I don’t believe didn’t know about The Last Dangerous Vi- there’s an extra human point of view that sions and I could have sentit to that! matters to us. Ellen’s belief is mine, that Over my 20s and 30sI very, very slowly fundamentally human beingsare their collected rejection slips from Interzone own moral arbiters, our little moral cen- and then gave up trying to write short tre. So there is no “good”external to the stories...” question of what is good for us.

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