Wiscon Panel Notes: Build a World
Jun. 2nd, 2010 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraaThe Build a World panel is not what you might think from the name. It's not a panel discussing how to build a world, oh no. It's a panel in which the panelists actually do build a world. Out of random parts. With great enthusiasm.
This is how it worked, this year at least: the panelists named categories of things you might want to figure out about your world (specifically, this time, Climate, Atmosphere, Fauna, Conflict Resolution, Flora, Geography, Religion, and, this being Wiscon, Systems of Oppression). The audience threw out suggestions for ideas for each category, ranging from the ordinary (plants are carnivorous!) to the unusual (plants produce sex pollen!) to the truly bizarre (the system of oppression is based on prime-number-related ageism!) Then each panelist picked one from each category, for a total of three per category, and then had to create a world including all of them by riffing and bouncing things off each other.
It was delightful to watch. And then, once the world was built, they (and we) created a musical set in the world!
Since I had my laptop out and was typing madly, I got drafted into being the panel secretary, to write down the notes we came up with. So here they are: the parameters, the Planet of LOLCats, and I Can Has Musical, The Musical!
(I make no promises that this is funny or interesting or even makes sense if you were not at the panel. However, if you were at the panel, here it is! And you should write fanfic about it!)
Moderator: Benjamin Rosenbaum
Panelists: Yoon Ha Lee, Derek Molata, David Levine
After the brainstorming round, these were the parameters the panelists picked for their world:
Climate
Klein bottle
Inside heated by mirrors
Atmosphere
Emo
Mercury
Giddy
Fauna
Cute
All-metallic
Telepathic
Conflict-resolution
Music-based
Genocidal
Absorptive
Flora
Carnivorous
Sex-pollen
Hallucinogenic
Geography
Archipelagic
Pointy
Volcanoes
Religion
Solipsistic
Social Networking/Crowdsourced
Furry
Systems of Oppression
Ageism based on prime numbers
Heckling
Tentacle number
Planet of Lolcats!
The planet is made of an archipelago of pointy spikes, on the top of each of which is a single creature, who believes he is the only real creature in the world. They communicate by telepathically shouting at one another. The creatures are adorable metallic tentacle beasts, who grow new tentacles as they age. They are such serious solipsists that they refuse to acknowledge that any of the other creatures even exist.
They're all addicted to hallucinogenic sex pollen, on account of if you're a solipsistic creature sitting alone on the top of a mountain and shouting, you don't have much else to do recreationally. Also, if you're a hardcore solipsist, as they are, you kind of need the sex pollen aspect to breed, ever.
Speaking of breeding: They have telepathic sex battles using musical frequencies, attempting to use their own mental harmonies to block our counteract the mental harmonies of their enemies, at which point they absorb the opponent and gain their genetic material. (They presumably must do this under the influence of sex pollen, as otherwise they're unable to even acknowledge the existence of other beings.) As they age, they gradually grow more tentacles and acquire more notes in their harmonies; a single-tentacle infant is a single note, whereas a 239-tentacled elder is a seriously complex piece of music. The creatures gain more tentacles as they age; prime numbered tentacles = good.
The creatures cut off their tentacles in an attempt to get to the right number of tentacles, or absorb other tentacle beings to gain more tentacles in the correct number. The very strong may also wait and attempt to grow more tentacles, as a higher-prime-number-tentacled creature has more status than a lower-prime-number-tentacled creature. There is a persistent genocidal war against non-prime-tentacled critters, though, resulting in even more pressure to cut off tentacles: only the very careful and patient can survive to have a lot of tentacles. Cut-off tentacles become their own life-forms; while absorption in musical sex-battles is the way they combine DNA, slicing off tentacles is the way to create new, independent creatures. The poor lonely tentacles must then crawl to the tops of the mountains, although the trek is arduous as there are predators about and, also, the other creatures of the species can provide no aid, as they are not able to recognize the tentacles as, well, existing.
The islands are surrounded by seas of mercury, and there is a good deal of competition for the containers that can contain the mercury, so that they can haz bukket.
Since the entire world is a Klein bottle, the pointy mountain/volcanoes are sinkholes on the other side. It's these volcano/sinkholes that contain the sex-pollen-producing flora. The world is also host to metallic minnows who carry the sex pollen from the sinkhole through the bottom/top and out the volcano, and those minnows are the hallucinogenic sex pollen pushers. They have a vested interest in this, because they feed on cast-off tentacles, and so want the creatures to consume other creatures and then cut off tentacles to reach the correct prime-numbered status.
The minnows love philosophy and enjoy a good debate, but are perennially disappointed because the creatures are incapable of debate.
Their solipsism of the creatures is due in part to the Klein bottle, so they believe that there's only one side of everything, including themselves.
I Can Haz Musical, The Musical!
Act One
Peppy opening number: a chorus of "There's Only Me". As they're singing, the 240-tentacled creature hits a wrong note and, in anger, slices off a tentacle. Our hero B Flat (aka Riff)* is born from the new tentacle, accompanied by the song "I Did Not See What You Did There."
* - Yoon was kind enough to hum B Flat's name whenever we needed it, because she has perfect pitch. I am using the panel nickname "Riff" for summary purposes.
As with all cast-off tentacles, Riff has to inch its* way down the mountain it was born on and find a new mountain while singing "Inching Down the Mountain." It then enters the mercury sea, looking for a new peak to live on. While swimming there, perhaps somewhat addled by hallucinogenic sex pollen and observing the metallic minnows sporting together in the depths of the mercury sea, it comes to the realization that he is not the only being in the universe.
* - For the panel purposes, we alternated male and female pronouns when describing the tentacle-beings. For the purposes of writing, that's waaaaaaay too complicated, so I collapsed it to 'it.' If you see any 'he' or 'she' references here, it's because I missed them when converting to 'it.'
The big first-act closer is Riff's dramatic realization that there are more than one being on the world: "Me is Part of We."
"I used to believe that there was only me / As I was swimming in the mercury sea // But I am now suspecting / As the mirrors are reflecting // That me, that me is part of we"
Act Two
As it travels, Riff comes across an island that may hold a mountain for it to claim. But it soon finds that the mountain is inhabited: first by an older critter (443 tentacles) on the top, and then by a thirteen-tentacled critter who's trying to challenge the elder. The thirteen-tentacled critter is a bit of a buffoon, as evidenced by the fact that it believes it has any chance against 443. There is a comic interlude, during which 13 attempts to challenge 443, and 443 doesn't even recognize the challenge as existing.
Riff attempts to talk to 13, but fails, in a duet called "Here I Am"/"There's Only Me." In desperation, Riff reaches out to touch 13 in an attempt to force it to acknowledge Riff, but 13 panics at having 'gained' another tentacle (not being able to recognize Riff as an independent being), starts cutting them all, and rolls down the hill.
Thirteen is found by a school of sex-pollen-carrying minnows, who arrive singing their theme, "Every Sinkhole is a Volcano." Via philosophy and song—minnows love philosophy, and always hope to find other beings to communicate with—they attempt to reach out to 13's cut-off tentacles, but the tentacles are unable to respond as they cannot recognize other beings as independent, and so the minnows eat them.
Meanwhile, 443 makes threatening noises, and Riff realizes that it can't stay there on this island and must venture into the sea that is teeming with carnivorous minnows bearing dangerous, hallucinogenic sex pollen. It is quickly surrounded by the metallic minnows.
But as is their way, the minnows engage Riff in philosophical conversation, and for the first time, the tentacle—Riff—can answer back. Overjoyed, they choose not to eat him, and sing a reprise of "Every Sinkhole is a Volcano," in which they give Riff hope. They escort it to an uninhabited island-spire.
Act Three
Riff crawls to the top of a mountain and engages in its first telepathic Battle of the Bands. It is able to harmonize, since it is aware of the existence of others. However, the act of singing so fearlessly makes it vulnerable, and it is nearly found and absorbed by 443. The minnows return to sing a warning in the form of the song, "Every Volcano is Also a Sinkhole."
One of Thirteen's tentacles survived, though, and comes up to claim the mountain from Riff. The two sing a courtship duo/debate, where Riff attempts to convince the Thirteen-tentacle that Riff exists. In the course of the duet, the Thirteen-tentacle falls for Riff, but has not yet let go of its solipsism, and so sings the mournful ballad, "I'm In Love With Someone Who Doesn't Exist."
However, when the two are threatened by 443, Riff's ability to harmonize allows the Thirteen-tentacle and Riff to merge, not in a violent absorption but in the first existence of a single multitentacled social colony being, with both personalities acknowledged and respected. The two are able to sing to drive off 443, and sing the last triumphant song, "We One Are Two".
Fin.
(I was taking fast notes and fleshing them out later, so if I messed anything up, or if you remember anything to add, please let me know!)
(Also, since I know a number of attendees were interested in these notes, please feel free to link. ...and if anyone does write metallic multitentacled sex pollen absorptive music battle fanfic set on volcanoes, please, please, please link me to it. :D )
This is how it worked, this year at least: the panelists named categories of things you might want to figure out about your world (specifically, this time, Climate, Atmosphere, Fauna, Conflict Resolution, Flora, Geography, Religion, and, this being Wiscon, Systems of Oppression). The audience threw out suggestions for ideas for each category, ranging from the ordinary (plants are carnivorous!) to the unusual (plants produce sex pollen!) to the truly bizarre (the system of oppression is based on prime-number-related ageism!) Then each panelist picked one from each category, for a total of three per category, and then had to create a world including all of them by riffing and bouncing things off each other.
It was delightful to watch. And then, once the world was built, they (and we) created a musical set in the world!
Since I had my laptop out and was typing madly, I got drafted into being the panel secretary, to write down the notes we came up with. So here they are: the parameters, the Planet of LOLCats, and I Can Has Musical, The Musical!
(I make no promises that this is funny or interesting or even makes sense if you were not at the panel. However, if you were at the panel, here it is! And you should write fanfic about it!)
Moderator: Benjamin Rosenbaum
Panelists: Yoon Ha Lee, Derek Molata, David Levine
After the brainstorming round, these were the parameters the panelists picked for their world:
Climate
Klein bottle
Inside heated by mirrors
Atmosphere
Emo
Mercury
Giddy
Fauna
Cute
All-metallic
Telepathic
Conflict-resolution
Music-based
Genocidal
Absorptive
Flora
Carnivorous
Sex-pollen
Hallucinogenic
Geography
Archipelagic
Pointy
Volcanoes
Religion
Solipsistic
Social Networking/Crowdsourced
Furry
Systems of Oppression
Ageism based on prime numbers
Heckling
Tentacle number
Planet of Lolcats!
The planet is made of an archipelago of pointy spikes, on the top of each of which is a single creature, who believes he is the only real creature in the world. They communicate by telepathically shouting at one another. The creatures are adorable metallic tentacle beasts, who grow new tentacles as they age. They are such serious solipsists that they refuse to acknowledge that any of the other creatures even exist.
They're all addicted to hallucinogenic sex pollen, on account of if you're a solipsistic creature sitting alone on the top of a mountain and shouting, you don't have much else to do recreationally. Also, if you're a hardcore solipsist, as they are, you kind of need the sex pollen aspect to breed, ever.
Speaking of breeding: They have telepathic sex battles using musical frequencies, attempting to use their own mental harmonies to block our counteract the mental harmonies of their enemies, at which point they absorb the opponent and gain their genetic material. (They presumably must do this under the influence of sex pollen, as otherwise they're unable to even acknowledge the existence of other beings.) As they age, they gradually grow more tentacles and acquire more notes in their harmonies; a single-tentacle infant is a single note, whereas a 239-tentacled elder is a seriously complex piece of music. The creatures gain more tentacles as they age; prime numbered tentacles = good.
The creatures cut off their tentacles in an attempt to get to the right number of tentacles, or absorb other tentacle beings to gain more tentacles in the correct number. The very strong may also wait and attempt to grow more tentacles, as a higher-prime-number-tentacled creature has more status than a lower-prime-number-tentacled creature. There is a persistent genocidal war against non-prime-tentacled critters, though, resulting in even more pressure to cut off tentacles: only the very careful and patient can survive to have a lot of tentacles. Cut-off tentacles become their own life-forms; while absorption in musical sex-battles is the way they combine DNA, slicing off tentacles is the way to create new, independent creatures. The poor lonely tentacles must then crawl to the tops of the mountains, although the trek is arduous as there are predators about and, also, the other creatures of the species can provide no aid, as they are not able to recognize the tentacles as, well, existing.
The islands are surrounded by seas of mercury, and there is a good deal of competition for the containers that can contain the mercury, so that they can haz bukket.
Since the entire world is a Klein bottle, the pointy mountain/volcanoes are sinkholes on the other side. It's these volcano/sinkholes that contain the sex-pollen-producing flora. The world is also host to metallic minnows who carry the sex pollen from the sinkhole through the bottom/top and out the volcano, and those minnows are the hallucinogenic sex pollen pushers. They have a vested interest in this, because they feed on cast-off tentacles, and so want the creatures to consume other creatures and then cut off tentacles to reach the correct prime-numbered status.
The minnows love philosophy and enjoy a good debate, but are perennially disappointed because the creatures are incapable of debate.
Their solipsism of the creatures is due in part to the Klein bottle, so they believe that there's only one side of everything, including themselves.
I Can Haz Musical, The Musical!
Act One
Peppy opening number: a chorus of "There's Only Me". As they're singing, the 240-tentacled creature hits a wrong note and, in anger, slices off a tentacle. Our hero B Flat (aka Riff)* is born from the new tentacle, accompanied by the song "I Did Not See What You Did There."
* - Yoon was kind enough to hum B Flat's name whenever we needed it, because she has perfect pitch. I am using the panel nickname "Riff" for summary purposes.
As with all cast-off tentacles, Riff has to inch its* way down the mountain it was born on and find a new mountain while singing "Inching Down the Mountain." It then enters the mercury sea, looking for a new peak to live on. While swimming there, perhaps somewhat addled by hallucinogenic sex pollen and observing the metallic minnows sporting together in the depths of the mercury sea, it comes to the realization that he is not the only being in the universe.
* - For the panel purposes, we alternated male and female pronouns when describing the tentacle-beings. For the purposes of writing, that's waaaaaaay too complicated, so I collapsed it to 'it.' If you see any 'he' or 'she' references here, it's because I missed them when converting to 'it.'
The big first-act closer is Riff's dramatic realization that there are more than one being on the world: "Me is Part of We."
"I used to believe that there was only me / As I was swimming in the mercury sea // But I am now suspecting / As the mirrors are reflecting // That me, that me is part of we"
Act Two
As it travels, Riff comes across an island that may hold a mountain for it to claim. But it soon finds that the mountain is inhabited: first by an older critter (443 tentacles) on the top, and then by a thirteen-tentacled critter who's trying to challenge the elder. The thirteen-tentacled critter is a bit of a buffoon, as evidenced by the fact that it believes it has any chance against 443. There is a comic interlude, during which 13 attempts to challenge 443, and 443 doesn't even recognize the challenge as existing.
Riff attempts to talk to 13, but fails, in a duet called "Here I Am"/"There's Only Me." In desperation, Riff reaches out to touch 13 in an attempt to force it to acknowledge Riff, but 13 panics at having 'gained' another tentacle (not being able to recognize Riff as an independent being), starts cutting them all, and rolls down the hill.
Thirteen is found by a school of sex-pollen-carrying minnows, who arrive singing their theme, "Every Sinkhole is a Volcano." Via philosophy and song—minnows love philosophy, and always hope to find other beings to communicate with—they attempt to reach out to 13's cut-off tentacles, but the tentacles are unable to respond as they cannot recognize other beings as independent, and so the minnows eat them.
Meanwhile, 443 makes threatening noises, and Riff realizes that it can't stay there on this island and must venture into the sea that is teeming with carnivorous minnows bearing dangerous, hallucinogenic sex pollen. It is quickly surrounded by the metallic minnows.
But as is their way, the minnows engage Riff in philosophical conversation, and for the first time, the tentacle—Riff—can answer back. Overjoyed, they choose not to eat him, and sing a reprise of "Every Sinkhole is a Volcano," in which they give Riff hope. They escort it to an uninhabited island-spire.
Act Three
Riff crawls to the top of a mountain and engages in its first telepathic Battle of the Bands. It is able to harmonize, since it is aware of the existence of others. However, the act of singing so fearlessly makes it vulnerable, and it is nearly found and absorbed by 443. The minnows return to sing a warning in the form of the song, "Every Volcano is Also a Sinkhole."
One of Thirteen's tentacles survived, though, and comes up to claim the mountain from Riff. The two sing a courtship duo/debate, where Riff attempts to convince the Thirteen-tentacle that Riff exists. In the course of the duet, the Thirteen-tentacle falls for Riff, but has not yet let go of its solipsism, and so sings the mournful ballad, "I'm In Love With Someone Who Doesn't Exist."
However, when the two are threatened by 443, Riff's ability to harmonize allows the Thirteen-tentacle and Riff to merge, not in a violent absorption but in the first existence of a single multitentacled social colony being, with both personalities acknowledged and respected. The two are able to sing to drive off 443, and sing the last triumphant song, "We One Are Two".
Fin.
(I was taking fast notes and fleshing them out later, so if I messed anything up, or if you remember anything to add, please let me know!)
(Also, since I know a number of attendees were interested in these notes, please feel free to link. ...and if anyone does write metallic multitentacled sex pollen absorptive music battle fanfic set on volcanoes, please, please, please link me to it. :D )
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