VanderMeer at Stranger than Truth: Thrilling Wonder Stories 2 (London, Nov 26)

Ann and I will be in London very briefly next week. I'm giving a presentation and participating in discussion at the Stranger than Truth: Thrilling Wonder Stories 2 conference. I'll be talking in the context of Alternate Presents, Finch and aspects of failed cities from a fictional point of view. Other participants include Antony Johnston of Wastelands fame, Will Self, Ant Farm, Rachel Armstrong, Geoff Manaugh, and more.I should note that this is a very tight travel schedule, so I hope to see people the day of the event, as we're basically there, doing the conference, and then taking a couple of days for ourselves on the back end (which are sacrosanct, so don't be askin', no matter how much we love you).We have always regaled ourselves with speculative stories of a day yet to come. In these polemic visions we furnish the fictional spaces of tomorrow with objects and ideas that at the same time chronicle the contradictions, inconsistencies, flaws and frailties of the everyday. Slipping suggestively between the real and the imagined they offer a distanced view from which to survey the consequences of various social, environmental and technological scenarios.Thrilling Wonder Stories gathers an ensemble of mad scientists, literary astronauts, digital poets, speculative gamers, mavericks, visionaries and luminaries to spin stories of wondrous possibilities or dark cautionary tales.Oh yeah--and the mushrooms are coming!