#novacon

[vifetoile]

Why Gandalf Never Married, a 1985 Talk by Terry Pratchett

Originally delivered as a speech at Novacon 15. Excerpt below:

But I must accept that people called witches have existed. In a sense they have been created by folklore, by what I call the Flying Saucer process -- you know, someone sees something they can't or won't explain in the sky, is aware that there is a popular history of sightings of flying saucers, so decides that what he has seen is a flying saucer, and pretty soon that "sighting" adds another few flakes to the great snowball of saucerology. In the same way, the peasant knows that witches are ugly old women who live by themselves because the folklore says so, so the local crone must be a witch. Soon everyone locally KNOWS that there is a witch in the next valley, various tricks of fate are laid at her door, and so the great myth chugs on.

One may look in vain for similar widespread evidence of wizards. In addition to the double handful of doubtful practitioners mentioned above, half of whom are more readily identifiable as alchemists or windbags, all I could come up with was some vaguely masonic cults, like the Horseman's Word in East Anglia. Not much for Gandalf in there.

Now you can take the view that of course this is the case, because if there is a dirty end of the stick then women will get it. Anything done by women is automatically downgraded. This is the view widely held -- well, widely held by my wife every since she started going to consciousness-raising group meetings -- who tells me it's ridiculous to speculate on the topic because the answer is so obvious. Magic, according to this theory, is something that only men can be really good at, and therefore any attempt by women to trespass on the sacred turf must be rigorously stamped out. Women are regarded by men as the second sex, and their magic is therefore automatically inferior. There's also a lot of stuff about man's natural fear of a woman with power; witches were poor women seeking one of the few routes to power open to them, and men fought back with torture, fire and ridicule.

I'd like to know that this is all it really is. But the fact is that the consensus fantasy universe has picked up the idea and maintains it. I incline to a different view, if only to keep the argument going, that the whole thing is a lot more metaphorical than that. The sex of the magic practitioner doesn't really enter into it. The classical wizard, I suggest, represents the ideal of magic -- everything that we hope we would be, if we had the power. The classical witch, on the other hand, with her often malevolent interest in the small beer of human affairs, is everything we fear only too well that we would in fact become.

Oh well, it won't win me a PhD. I suspect that via the insidious medium of picture books for children the wizards will continue to practice their high magic and the witches will perform their evil, bad-tempered spells. It's going to be a long time before there's room for equal rites.

[anitaallemant]

Novacon 2024 https://youtu.be/NPxPX1caoKw

[ritacarliniacquerelli]

NOVACON

2 LUGLIO 2023

NOVARA

NOVACON è il festival del fumetto, games, cosplay e cultura pop organizzato patrocinato dal Comune di Novara (Assessorato alla Cultura) si terrà il 2 luglio 2023 presso Nova (ex Caserma Passalacqua) in viale Ferrucci 2 a Novara.

lI festival ha la finalità di promuovere e far conoscere le seguenti forme d’arte e comunicazione: fumetto, cinema, manga, videogiochi, cosplay, doppiaggio, musica, internet e la cultura pop e molto altro; i temi saranno trattati attraverso conferenze e incontri con autori, artisti, scrittori, youtuber, cosplayer e influencer di fama nazionale e UNA MOSTRA A TEMA DONNE E FUMETTO.

Durante la giornata verranno realizzati anche diversi laboratori e workshop di:

fumetto, manga, sceneggiatura, game design, stampa 3d, doppiaggio, giapponese parlato e scritto e molto altro.

Watercolours by Rita Carlini

[keratoconusgroup]

Novacone/Kerasoft IC - has anyone with advanced KC tried these?

I have 3 finger vision thanks to KC & currently wear sclerals, and have done so for over 10years. However my lens intolerance is back and my wear time is now down to just a few hours in a day. Has anyone with very advanced KC had success with alternative lenses such as Novacone/Kerasoft? Any other suggestions to improve? I was prescribed drops which had an improvement whilst I was on them, however they are not suitable for long term use. My Doctor's have advised that surgery does not provide any gaurantees of improved vision - or of improving my lens tolerance. submitted by /u/AgentHobbes [link] [comments] https://www.reddit.com/r/Keratoconus/comments/zvci3p/novaconekerasoft_ic_has_anyone_with_advanced_kc/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[ziggy-solarecreator]

Hey Marc haters and anyone who is saying he was a creep:

I have multiple quotes from people calling him a nice man, sweet even. Even -gasp- Nana herself! example one: Cyia Batten (the first Ziyal). "Marc Alaimo was simply the sweetest man on and off set. Such a pro. I just adored him and was so grateful I got to work with him." Here's a link to the interview where she talks about her roles in Star Trek: https://www.startrek.com/article/enterprises-orion-slave-girls-part-2?fbclid=IwAR3WkSSIUvJ7rCtnvqzutG45Dlfr9yfEp4kVx8xb77Y_aL4zxP98o4Cr9Rk example two: "The mind meld was way cool. I had a wonderful time working with Marc Alaimo, who played Gul Dukat. He was such a gentle, sweet guy." (Bertila Damas, 'Sakonna', startrek.com) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmkT3oRJuaA example three: According to her old interviews, Nana had trouble separating Marc from his role but it wasn't against him personally: A May 1996 interview http://nanavision.com/?p=13 (...) Marc Alaimo is an interesting story because of what I was saying before about my scenes with Dukat being difficult for me to do. Marc is the sweetest man in the world. He has had my son Buster and me over at his house and we spent the day with him. He’s delightful, but when he’s on the set, he is Dukat. He’s already in makeup and I can’t see him as anything else. I don’t banter very much with Marc. It’s just something visceral in me that goes right into Kira.” From someone's report from Novacon convention in April 1997: Nana used to say that she never liked to work with Mark Alaimo (Dukat). She always saw him in makeup and just never wanted to be near him at all because of what his character stood for. There was always tension between the two of them on the set, lines would be changed. Just before Thanksgiving last year someone on the set asked Mark if he had any plans for Thanksgiving and he said "no." Nana then invited him over to her house for the holiday and said he'd come. Come Thanksgiving he shows up and they have dinner "and he is sweet and funny and charming and incredible with the kids... rolling on the floor with Buster." She realized that she hated him as Dukat and not as a person. After dinner she said she wanted him to come over again so they could talk and have a good time, but when they met again on the set later in full make-up, she said this curt "Hello" to him and ignored him feeling awful -- she couldn't get past what his make-up represents to the Kira character.

here's some more: Star Trek Monthly, January 1998 http://nanavision.com/?p=14 That rhythm was evident earlier today, when Visitor and Marc Alaimo squared off in Sisko’s former office. “It was Dukat at his most offensive. Things are heating up very much on the station, and I’m interested myself to see where it’s going to go between the two of us.” That mounting tension is so real, one wonders if Nana Visitor has a hard time separating Marc Alaimo the actor from the evil Cardassian he so wonderfully portrays. “It always has been hard for me,” she confesses. “I’ve found through the seasons that I’ve treated Marc badly, because every time I’ve seen him, he’s made up like a Cardassian, and all the prejudices hit me right away of what my character thinks of Dukat. But this season, probably because things are emotionally very sensitive in the scenes, we’re dealing with more layers than just one. We’ve been fooling around and talking about scenes and actually having more of what we have on weekends than we usually have on the set.” (http://trekbbs.com/.../true-the-cast-did-not-get.../page-2) another positive marc quote: Melanie Smith, The 7th Rule podcast episode #146, December 13th, 2021: "There was a natural intensity to Marc . . . he came to truly love Ziyal. . . . he would have to come to understand forgiveness after that. . . Marc has a strong, direct personality that really helped me play my character. And it gave me something to push against and it gave him something to fall against that was gentle. So it was nice chemistry with us."

WITH SOURCES

don't hate on my boi again.

honestly, tw: dukat and everything he is.

i think the scariest thing about dukat is that he's real. i mean this in two ways: first, marc alaimo is an asshole. if you haven't seen "what we left behind," the ds9 doc, try and find it. the cast members were not shy about telling how they felt about him. he made nana visitor just as uncomfortable as gul dukat made nerys.

second, our world leaders are literally like this. you have to be in order to justify the kinds of things those people do. dukat is a psychotic narcissist who was able to justify his sickness by destroying an entire civilization.

i don't mean this in an ugly way, bc people can like whoever they like and it literally does not affect me. but, i could never find him likeable, or even "hate to love." he's disturbing. he's well written, and terrifying.

[airmanisr]

SA3A2569 by GCF Photography

[letzoespoilyoucreates]

I will be at @Novacon49 This weekend! 8th - 10th November Nottingham http://www.novacon.org.uk/n49/index.php

[justawanderingdragon]

novacon ft @uovoc

[saragobragh]

Are you doing all you can for the war effort? 🇺🇸🦅 . A little #ThrowbackThursday for ya, and I don't even care it's only from two months ago! . 📷 by Sean Price // @s1price_lightworks #CaptainAmerica #Cosplay #USOGirl #CaptainAmericaCosplay #Avengers #Marvel #CosplayersOfInstagram #NovaCon #TheFirstAvenger #MarvelCosplay (at The NOVA CON)

[exploding-jelly]

My peridot cosplay. It just needs a few touch ups

[thefanspov]

#Regram from @marlondavid_photography featuring @ashefrosty at NOVAcon in McLean, Virginia, USA ・・・ “I’m not going to stop the wheel. I’m going to break the wheel”- Daenerys by the beautiful @ashefrosty . So excite for tonight episode 😅✌🏻 #gameofthrones #got7 #daenerys #cosplay #khaleesi #motherofdragons #queenofmereen #photography #nikon #nikond750 #cosplayinstagram #instacosplay #instagram #fairylights #northervirginia #ritzcarlton #novacon #novacon2017 (at The NOVA CON)

[tomryansstudio]

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A post shared by Tom Ryan Artist/Designer 🎨 (@tomryansstudio)

Stitchom stickers are in stock. Thanks to @StickerApp for printing these, they came out awesome. They'll be available next week at Nova Con (@thenovacon) first and then afterwards on my shop. #Stitchom #Sticker #VenomStitch #MashUp #Venom #Stitch #StickerApp #NovaCon #NovaCon2017 #TomRyansStudio

[icantcu]

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A post shared by Half Eared Cat (@halfeared)

My wife made this transforming Beauty & the Beast costume modeled by her friend at NOVA Con’s High Fashion Cosplay Contest last night.

[estebanwaseaten]

It's cloudy out there today so come hide inside at #novacon until 7 PM! You can make it rain indoors with all of the lovely artists, vendors, and cosplayers. Plus me! I'm at table 80 directly next to the main entrance. Free antidepressant stickers available to battle the weather! #artness #digitalart #artist #artwork #originalart #fineart #instalike #mixedmedia #drawing #painting #scratchboard #igartist #artstagram #illustration #artnerd #arts #design #sketch #comicon (at The NOVA CON)

[davidnewbold]

#sketch #commission #copicmarkers #bobafett #novacon from last weekends show!

[axtellustration]

Previously at NOVA Con… I got to ride an elevator with Kelly Hu, say “hello” to Shannon Purser (Stranger Things’ Barb), and had a former student draw me as a superhero! What’s not to like at NOVA Con! I’m only scheduled for 2-3 more shows this year, so come by and show some love for your local comic artists! If you miss me at the main entrance, you should probably get better glasses. #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #artistalley #unkytheduck #colonialcomics #axtellsbullets #straysngates #strangefungus #wildocean #reasonsishouldnotbeonatalkshow #axtellustration #stewiepotter #harleyquinn #stewiemario #deadpool #comiccon #dccomicart #dcconspiracy #dcartist #novacon #axtell #familyguy #stewiemashup (at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner)