#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.

[the-bar-sinister]

Origin and Early History

The term itself comes from Monty Python's 1971 Big Red Book, which declared the drabble a word game in which two to four players compete to be the first to write a novel.[1]

Drabbles emerged within British science fiction fandom in the 1980s; the Birmingham University SF society is credited as being the organization that set the length at 100 words.[1] The form remained popular throughout the decade, and the British science-fiction publisher Beccon Publications put out three books of drabbles in aid of charity between 1988-1993. The third book, Drabble Who, had a Doctor Who theme and presumably many of its 100 drabbles could be considered fan fiction.[2]

A fan in 2008 posted: "Hey. I am a British science-fiction fan. Under no circumstances do I use the word "drabble" except in its original, precise, meaning of a "story of exactly 100 words" with a title of up to 15 words, hyphens to-be-argued-about. I'd be banned from Novacon." [3]

A drabble is like a sonnet. It has rules. The rules make it an art form. It should have exactly 100 words.

This has been around since the old fandoms, of live journal and newsgroups.

Ficlet. Flashfic. Those are short things.

A drabble is 100 words.

[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

[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)

[saragobragh]

Who will campaign door-to-door for America, carry the flag shore to shore for America, from Hoboken to Spokane? The Star Spangled Man with a Plan! . 📷 by Justin S // @richandstrangephotography #USOGirl #CaptainAmericaCosplay #CaptainAmerica #MarvelCosplay #Marvel #Avengers #CosplayersOfInstagram #Disney #DisneyCosplay #America #NovaCon #WigIsFashion (at The NOVA CON)