FinnCon 2009

[Luzifer's right hand]

we had a great time, thanks so much for sharing it with us. I hope George impressed you with qouting from the english translation of that Finnish poem he's been carrying that around in his head for 30+ years!

we're looking forward to the actual convention, and hope that we get to meet many more new friends and fans.

Hey folks, if you're in the general vincinity, come to Finncon and share a wonderful convention and city with us for the weekend!

I'm looking forward to meeting George and you again. :)

Maybe you remember the Austrian with horns from Denver. :devil:

Wasn't the Finnish translator(or was it the cover artist? ) of A Game of Thrones at the Worldcon in Glasgow?

I remember discussing Haggis with him while both of us were rather drunk. Do you know if he will be there?

(I got my usual case of pre-travel insomnia.)

[Gus]

Leaving for Helsinki taking the ferry over so I will be there friday. Will keep my eyes open for a the horns and the t-shirt. If I see you I will introduce myself Luzifer.

[Luzifer's right hand]

I arrived in Helsinki and already explored the city for a few hours.

However my legs have started to hurt and I think I will start looking for a pub for pint(or more).

[Sini]

I hope George impressed you with qouting from the english translation of that Finnish poem he's been carrying that around in his head for 30+ years!

Oh yes he did impress us with that! I think we've always asked people if they've read Kalevala and heard of the Moomins but never Runeberg!

About meeting each other: The con opens at 2pm. The fandom lounge is in Puristamo, so let's meet at there by the "alien info", let's say at 2:30pm? That should be enough time for you to have gotten a programme booklet and find the map and thus the way to Puristamo. I'll be there then, wearing a black Finncon t-shirt AND a name badge.

Luzifer, too bad I only now saw your message. The Finnish fandom was meeting in St. Urhos pub and George and Parris were going to join them after our GoH sauna. The Finnish translator is a she so you probably met Petri, the illustrator - there is a new illustrated hardback version of Game of Thrones and his illustrations are beautiful.

And I'm too tired to read this whole thread through but somewhere I saw an Estonian saying that he or she couldn't come to Helsinki - GRRM is doing a signing in Tallinn.

13. juuli 17:00, on võimalus kohtuda George R.R. Martiniga! Rahva Raamatus, Viru Keskuse kaupluse 4. korruse esitluste pinnal

And now I have to go to sleep. zzz

[Luzifer's right hand]

About meeting each other: The con opens at 2pm. The fandom lounge is in Puristamo, so let's meet at there by the "alien info", let's say at 2:30pm? That should be enough time for you to have gotten a programme booklet and find the map and thus the way to Puristamo. I'll be there then, wearing a black Finncon t-shirt AND a name badge.

Sounds good. I will be wearing a winter is comig t-shirt and hopefuly my horns, my old cheap plastic headband died on me thus I need to find another way to wear them though.

Luzifer, too bad I only now saw your message. The Finnish fandom was meeting in St. Urhos pub and George and Parris were going to join them after our GoH sauna. The Finnish translator is a she so you probably met Petri, the illustrator - there is a new illustrated hardback version of Game of Thrones and his illustrations are beautiful.

Too bad, but sleep catched up with me at that point anyways and I returned to the hostel.

Well it has been a long time but I'm fairly certain about the gender.

The cover for the Finnish version I saw at the Worldcon in Glasgow looked quite nice.

[Lupigis]

I hope George impressed you with qouting from the english translation of that Finnish poem he's been carrying that around in his head for 30+ years!

Oh yes he did impress us with that! I think we've always asked people if they've read Kalevala and heard of the Moomins but never Runeberg!

I assume it was this one:

Förtig hans ätt, nämn ej hans stam,

Välv ej på den hans brott;

Må ingen rodna för hans skam,

Den drabbe honom blott.

Den, som förrått sitt land, han har

Ej ätt, ej stam, ej son, ej far.

Nämn honom blott den falska arm,

Man ställt till Finlands stöd,

Nämn honom blygd och hån och harm

Och skuld och straff och död.

Det är blott så, han kallas bör,

Det är att skona den som hör.

It fits well, both with the place (obviously!) but also with many of the themes of ASOIAF.

[Sini]

Actually, 2:30 pm IS NOT a good time if you want to go to the GRRM Kaffeeklatsch. I had already once rejected that time due to that, but did I mention that I was tired?

So let's say 3:15 pm?

Hope you will see this in time...

[Gabriele]

Oh yes he did impress us with that! I think we've always asked people if they've read Kalevala and heard of the Moomins but never Runeberg!

I have heard of him. :) But I've studied Scandinavian Languages and Culture, among other subjects, so it may not be that much of a surprise.

Pity I learned about that convention too late to book a ferry from Travemünde (at least not without paying a fortune), but on the other hand, I'd have loved to combine it with a tour to Tallinn and Riga, and probably Gotland/Visby on the way back, and that's outside my budget after the Scotland tour in June. Plus, I've been to Helsinki already.

I'll keep an eye on the 2010 Ireland convention instead.

Have fun, all of you. :)

[Werthead]

Any of our Finnish brethren want to attempt to translate this article?

Seriously, online translator programmes seem to be completely defeated by Finnish.

[Luzifer's right hand]

I did meet Sini, Gus and firq today.

Anybodey else who was interested in the con town?

The first con day was fun and I introduced the N00bs to GRRM and Parris, it seems as the senior BWB member around(How did that happen? I blame pod!) it is my duty to orginize things. Send me a message (gone!) if you are interrested in meeting up at the con or for a drink.

I will gladly introduce any N00bs to GRRM. ;)

Gtg, more people wan't to use the free internet after all.

Edit: my phone died on me and as usual I forgot my carger, thus I removed my number again because it would have been pointless.

[Gabriele]

Seriously, online translator programmes seem to be completely defeated by Finnish.

No surprise with a language that makes 'I want a sandwich with ham, egg, onions, salad and mayonnaise, please' into one word. Really, that beats even German. :D

Poor George has the same nasty weather as we here, it seems.

[Andriy Czarchenko]

I´ll try Werthead

Finncon guest of honor GRRM writes realistic fantasy

then picture from Suomenlinna/Sveaborg

ASOIAF translated to 22 languages and sold millions of copies. Time said Martin is "American Tolkien".

This weekend GoH at Finncon in helsinki.

Martin has conquered readers with his realistic, "adult" style.

ASOIAF pseudo middle-ages, 7 kingdoms, power struggles, nobles, wars, traitors. Violence hurts, people die, sex, no black/white.

Books show writers history-fandom.

"I love history, especially antique and middle-ages.

ASOIAF has 100s of characters. Every book has lists of members of different families in the end, without which reading could be painful.

Historic style includes multiple POVs. Reader gets different versions of what happens.

Lots of details brings world colourfully alive, based on knowledge of middle-ages.

"I want my readers to live my books. I want they see and smell the food, feel the silk and fear of battle".

Complex story, different perspectives, detailed storytelling - all of this takes lots of pages.

First 3 parts of Finnish ASOIAF have almost 2700 pages and that´s not even half of the whole series.

HBO films in october in Northern Ireland pilot for TV-series.

Producer has come up with clumsy sentence to sell "Sopranos in Middle-Earth".

"If pilot goes well there´s intention of 12 episode TV-series of every book".

There´s apparently longer interview in paper form but unfortunately I don´t have it.

ETA: I may get there tomorrow or not still not sure.

[iheartseverus]

Thanks, Czar! Uhhh, 'Sopranos in Middle-Earth?' arrrggghhhhh...............

*rushes off to be sick*

:ack:

[Ran]

That's not new. Benioff stated that in an interview awhile ago, regarding his single line pitch for how he would describe it to people. And obviously, it worked, so I don't think one should vomit all over it. ;)

[Sini]

Another newspaper story written by a friend of mine who knows her fantasy - the header means "Blood, war, sex and death" but unfortunately I don't have the time to translate all of it.

George gave an excellent GoH speech, I got little teary eyed in the end and thought he deserved a standing ovation. I think I was the only one. Can't understand why?

It was nice meeting you, Luzifer. Sorry I had to leave for Con duties but hope to see you again.

Got myself the Finnish illustrated hc of Game of Thrones. The pics are great - you can see one on the publisher's page - Ned by the dead wolf.

[Fleeing Finn]

Going to attend George's interview on Saturday. Maybe I'll even try to catch a word with him if possible and if I'm not too intimidated by his sinister appearance only known to me through photos.

[Lichen]

Another newspaper story written by a friend of mine who knows her fantasy - the header means "Blood, war, sex and death" but unfortunately I don't have the time to translate all of it.

This is a shabby summary from the two interviews. (above and Helsingin Sanomat).

Full of typos and poor english, hehe :drunk:

There werent any groundbreaking news in either one of them.

GRRMs looks are bit misleading/deceiving.(with a santa claus reference) You might think he writes childrens books, which is certainly not the case (gritty books etc)

“I write about people and war. Brutal things happen in war.â€

“The best way to tell a story is to stick to one persons point of view at a time, but people are subjective. When the story is told from a different point of view it opens up new dimensions.

“I’ve reached the limit with different POV characters. (their number)â€

“It is not realistic to expect that at times of war nobody (main characters) dies.â€

“I envisioned the first chapter of the series in the summer of 1991 while writing a scifi novel. I wrote it up (first chapter) and continued. At the end of the summer I already had hundred pages of text.

“I’ve had problems with Dance (with dragons), it is no longer easy to

keep characters from falling apart, among other things. "

Some quotes from the original Helsingin Sanomat (paper version) article.

His love for history -> “There are incredible stories to be found in history. Sometimes when im reading history, I say to my wife that “you couldnt make things like these upâ€.

Martin wants to blur the border between history and fantasy. “Fantasy is always greater than reality, but it has to be based on realityâ€

He gives an example. Theres a huge wall on the northern border of asoiaf world. It was inspired by Hadrianus’ Wall in Scotland. “It is six meters high. My wall is over two hundred meters high and is made of ice. But it is based on the experience, when i was walking on Hadrianus Wall on 1981. I was wondering how it would have felt to be a legionnare and look across the border into the unknown.â€

War is almost always in the center of epic fantasy. But it is often “fable kind of warâ€. “Few fantasy stories examine what war really isâ€, Martin says. The main problem is that not enough people die. “The hero often just pushes onwards with a sword in his hand.â€

Martin has understood that killing charactes makes the reader fear battles also. “When you kill characters early on, it is clear that nobody is safe.â€

About Hollywood. “In hollywood a script for tv-episode must be 60 pages long, one minute for every page. Not too many characters or locations because of the budget limits. My scripts were always too big and expensive. And the final version (that was shot) was always inferior to my original version.â€

About hbos asoiaf. “The plan is, if the pilot succeeds and everythings goes ok, to make 12 episodes from every novel.

“I’ll be writing these books for at least seven more years. At the moment im writing AdwD. I hope to finish it by the end of the year. If I’ll manage to write the next novel (6th) in three years I’ll be satisfied.â€

[Luzifer's right hand]

OMG it's the finnish party!!!!

Edit: I found a random pc at the place where the con is taking place, just ignore this piece of drunken posting!

[Maltaran]

OMG it's the finnish party!!!!

Edit: I found a random pc at the place where the con is taking place, just ignore this piece of drunken posting!

Do they have any flying devil cows this time?

[McCloskey]

Does anyone know if George did a reading at Finncon? If so, what was it from?