On Valentine’s Day, I presented my paper, “Projecting Victorians into the Future Through the Works of H.G. Wells and Steampunk” at the weekly Faculty and Postgraduate School of English Seminar. I think that there was a pretty good turn out with folks peppering Lecture Theatre Two in the Rendall Building. My presentation was only twenty minutes long, because I had edited the paper down to ten pages (from twelve). I spent the last week working on this so that it would be the appropriate length for the SF and the Canon Conference in Cambridge. I shouldn’t have done this, because the Q&A session didn’t run very long. This was due in part to my not knowing everything there is to know in relation to steampunk. Also, I should have structured my handout differently, because I was asked more questions about the titles on the handout (most of which I haven’t read) instead of the titles that I talked about in my paper–Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, Wells’ “A Story of the Days to Come,” and Chiang’s “Seventy-Two Letters.” Everyone told me that it was a good presentation, but I feel that I didn’t deliver as much as I should have. I suppose I’m my own worst critic, but I think that’s the way it should be. Thanks again to everyone for coming out and I hope that you enjoyed the chocolates and talk. Pictures from the presentation are here.
I called my folks the other day to ask them to ship my J.Crew suit to me, because I don’t have any good presentation clothes. I wore my GAP shirt and sports jacket from my very first presentation at Georgia Tech’s Monstrous Bodies Symposium. My shirt was like a balloon since I’ve lost so much weight!
After the presentation, Jonathan, AP, Andy, Christian, Ardy, and I walked over to the Cambridge for a pint. Jonathan hooked me up with some Fosters. I found out some more about the PhD program here at Liverpool from Jonathan, and we all had a lively discussion about comics, books, and films.
For Valentine’s Day, Sunshine organized an outing to FACT for a one night screening of Casablanca. Christian, Ardy, Jean, “Him,” and I met Sunshine outside her university tele-annoying job around 7:45pm, and then we all walked down to FACT. After we got there, I went to the bar and got a White Russian, and then we went into the movie after Phill got there. It was great seeing Bogart, Bergman, and Rains on the big screen.
Today, I met Meghmala for coffee and a lively discussion about science fiction and astrophysics. I messaged her awhile back on facebook after seeing that she’s a fan of Asimov. I think that we had a good conversation, and I certainly enjoyed hearing about her program and coursework. If I had it to do all over, I think astrophysics would be a good path to take.
I’m currently reading Murray Constantine’s (Katharine Burdekin) Swastika Night for Utopias and Gibson and Sterling’s The Difference Engine for reworking my steampunk paper.
Dynamic Subspace 