Boskone Panel Notes: "The Paper Menagerie:" Anatomy of a Winning Story

[skogkatt]

This was the only panel I managed to attend without being a panelist. I was really curious to hear what the panelists would have to say about why they thought this story appealed to so many people, and what in general made a story award worthy. The panel went in a different direction than I expected, but it was still fascinating. I love the story,

Comments

[sartorias]

Wow, that was quite interesting! Thanks a lot for typing that up!

[skogkatt]

Yeah, I thought it was very interesting. Thanks for reading!

[ext_1304232]

Those are some detailed notes! Interesting to see all the differences in opinion over this story.
onewritersmind.blogspot.com

[skogkatt]

Thanks for reading. It's really interesting to me how many people who have either taught literary mainstream writing, or done MFA courses find this story to be too reminiscent of MFA stories. Taste is really subjective, though. I can recognize what they are saying, but I still love the story.

[samhenderson]

Thank you for your notes on this!

[skogkatt]

Thanks for reading!

[cucumberseed]

One thing that strikes me is that people who are closer to the immigrant experience (in whatever way) seemed to be better disposed to the story in the comments at io9.

[skogkatt]

Yeah, when Goss first said that it spoke to her as someone from an immigrant family, there was a wave of audience members vigorously nodding.