Worldcon 2019 panel notes: Thursday

Part one of my panel notes, of various length.

Crime and punishment in the age of superheroes
Superhero TV shows repeatedly borrow the structures and tropes of cop shows, with many superheroes being ‘Cowboy Cops’ –operating according to the Rule of Cool with a sketchy adherence to notions of due process and civil rights. Can these hybrid narratives really acknowledge the ways in which real law enforcement is tangled up with race, class, and so on, and what do they reveal about attitudes to contemporary policing?
Panelists: Chris M. Barkley(M), Rachel Coleman, Dan Moren, Aliette de Bodard ( notes )

How to build an evil empire
So you want to build an Evil Empire? Using examples from film and literature, our panel of evil geniuses will help you avoid the pitfalls of previous empires with handy hints and tips, such as: don’t build an exhaust port that can set off a chain reaction leading to the reactor, which will destroy your brand new Death Star.
Lee Harris(M), Diane Duane, Verity Allan, Steve Jackson ( notes )

A portable kind of magic: Why we love books-about-books
Whether it’s a library of every book ever written, a compendium of magical creatures, or a hitchhiker’s guide to the universe, we’ve always loved a good story-about-a-story. What is behind our fascination with books and libraries, and why does it translate so well to SFF? How does the history of book-making connect to our myths and legends, and what shape will our meta-stories take in the future?
Genevieve Cogman(M), A.J. Hackwith, Tasha Suri, Miriam Weinberg ( notes )

How to manage finite natural resources
The world has finite natural resources, yet we appear to be consuming them as if they were infinite. Political and economic inertia has led us to expend minimal effort in the effective use of our resources, to the detriment of the environment and our species. Our panel will explore what we can do to manage the resources that we have, and whether we can do so to the benefit of all species on this planet.
Vincent Docherty(M), Sazib Bhuiyan, Nigel Quinlan, Annalee Newitz, Cliona Shakespeare

( notes )

Talking animal characters in SFF
Science fiction and fantasy have a long history of anthropomorphic animals in both children’s and adult novels. What is the attraction of talking animals? Can they be seen as a commentary on the human condition? What are the pitfalls and opportunities offered by this anthropomorphism?
Lise Andreasen(M), Robert V. S. Redick, RJ Barker, Virginia, Adrian Tchaikovsky
( notes )

And after this I played a game of the TinyD6 game "Guardians," where I played a stuffed bear toy who was also a wizard, and together with other stuffed toys we had to defend a child and defeat evil toys in a store. ( notes )