I seldom recall my dreams these days -

[oursin]

- but when I do, quite often they will be occurring in some sort of space which has the air of a conference-type space.

And last night I did actually dream about being at a conference, what I can remember of it, and it was somehow a reprise of an earlier conference, and there were a couple of people there saying they were looking forward to my paper because they so much appreciated the two earlier ones I'd given - (Gratifying!)

I do rather miss in-person conferences though I am still quite dubious about attending.

And, anyway, my sense was that this conference was Something To Do With History of Sexuality, and coincidentally crossing my social media timeline today was the absolutely fascinating emergence of a ring of the secret homophile Order of Chaeronea, founded by George Ives, whose papers I had delved into in those days when I visited the Harry Ransom Center in Texas.

I had never considered that Ives might have been a model for Raffles, but he was a noted cricketer, and I suppose (if Hornung had known) the substitution of one illegal activity for another might even represent coding, especially in the light of the Raffles/Bunny relationship...

Comments

[arkessian]

I am also dubious about attending events that to which I would not have given a second thought in days of yore... I ran a writing weekend workshop for years, but the early months of the pandemic meant it couldn't happen and I handed over to the next generation... It's still going, in a reduced format, but I can't reconcile my health with sitting in a small room with 12-15 other people for 2- 3 days, alas.

[oursin]

Yeah. I have conceded to presenting at a small workshoppy conference next month because they have said I can do this online, yay.

(It is to be held in KCL Bush House site - I am really really dubious about the ventilation, from my memories of it back in the day when it housed BBC Foreign Service.)

[themis1]

I'm relieved to say that when I dream about conferences, they're the SF ones, not the work ones I used to go to!