In the future, everyone will be fashionable for a millenium

July 14, 2012 8:58 AM

"What IS this? No clue! But fur is involved. She did not set fire to him. Nite nite!"

Margaret Atwood is at Comic Con and is indulging in her life-long love of cosplay. (It's a Canadian thing.) See Peggy. See Peggy hang with Klingons, steampunks, and many, many others.

Full Twitpic index. Previously: Atwood designs a superhero costume (Twitpic)

posted by maudlin (27 comments total)

For those as confused as Ms. Atwood: the answer to "What IS this?" is Annie and Tibbers from League of Legends.
posted by baf at 9:05 AM on July 14, 2012

I spent far too long trying to figure out who Margaret Atwood was cosplaying as.
posted by c'mon sea legs at 9:09 AM on July 14, 2012

Heh. I don't always see eye to eye with Atwood, but this is super charming.
posted by Artw at 9:10 AM on July 14, 2012

Margaret Atwood here seems like such a cheerful person to have written such dark moments in her books. I still can't get my husband to finish reading Oryx and Crake so I can talk about it with him- he found it too depressing.
posted by Secretariat at 9:11 AM on July 14, 2012

I love Margaret Atwood's twitter. It's obvious she just enjoys tweeting and is very sincere about what she writes, unlike most public figure social media "users". It's a breath of fresh air amidst the haze of false-social-connection-as-marketing.
posted by snorkmaiden at 9:15 AM on July 14, 2012 [4 favorites]

Lately I like Margaret Atwood as person much more than I like her as a writer.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 9:31 AM on July 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

For decades, she has been even more vehement than Harlan Ellison in insisting that she does not write science fiction.

Peggy, c'mon. You tweet, you design superhero costumes, you go to Comicon, you invent telepresence devices. You don't just write SF, you are SF.
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 9:45 AM on July 14, 2012 [17 favorites]

Just to head off any suggestions that Ms. Atwood should be at home, hard at work, writing till her hands fall off on MaddAddam No. 3, she tweeted at me earlier this week that the book will be out in Fall 2013. "Unless I drop dead," she said. I hope she does not drop dead.

And I have to say, I'm kind of loving her outfit here.
posted by brina at 9:53 AM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

For decades, she has been even more vehement than Harlan Ellison in insisting that she does not write science fiction.

A position many of us find incredibly insulting, for several reasons which probably don't need to be detailed in this thread.
posted by Aquaman at 9:57 AM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

For decades, she has been even more vehement than Harlan Ellison in insisting that she does not write science fiction.

She's like I was in high school, head-to-toe bedecked in black and positively dripping in gaudy pewter necklaces, screaming over my Sisters of Mercy and Christian Death albums that I WASN'T A GOTH, DAMN IT, I WAS JUST A UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:00 AM on July 14, 2012 [18 favorites]

When did Comic Con supercede the Democratic and Republican National Conventions as the most important event of the year? I understand why, but not when.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:03 AM on July 14, 2012 [5 favorites]

For decades, she has been even more vehement than Harlan Ellison in insisting that she does not write science fiction.

*sunglasses*

It's the 21st Century. You want science? Just live it.
YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH
posted by Smart Dalek at 10:20 AM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

If anyone really wants to relive/rehash the "Margaret Atwood vs. Sci Fi" debacle again, just read all the other previous threads about her. Trust me, someone already made whatever point you'd like to make (in fact, that person may have been you).
posted by hermitosis at 10:38 AM on July 14, 2012 [6 favorites]

I somehow never managed to read Oryx & Crake, though I enjoyed Year of the Flood. Maybe I should try again.
posted by jeather at 10:55 AM on July 14, 2012

jeather, Oryx and Crake is totally worth it, and you'll connect lots of dots between it and Year of the Flood.
posted by brina at 11:08 AM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I somehow never managed to read Oryx & Crake, though I enjoyed Year of the Flood. Maybe I should try again.

Start with Handmaid's Tale instead. Surfacing is also a beautiful short novel that digs deep into your mind, in a way that only good literature can do.
posted by Fizz at 11:08 AM on July 14, 2012

I have read almost all of Atwood's books and short story collections, including Handmaid's Tale (but excluding Alias Grace and Oryx & Crake).
posted by jeather at 11:20 AM on July 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Just to head off any suggestions that Ms. Atwood should be at home, hard at work, writing till her hands fall off on MaddAddam No. 3, she tweeted at me earlier this week that the book will be out in Fall 2013

Oh that's good news. Oryx and Crake is fucking brilliant, and Year of the Flood a worthy sequel. But Oryx and Crake. It's been a long time since I've read a novel and found myself pausing with near amazement (and joy at said amazement) so often.
posted by jokeefe at 11:41 AM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

she seems like one of the least hateful twitter people i know

that said, LeGuin is still probably more my speed
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 12:58 PM on July 14, 2012

She isn't science fiction so much as socio-political, isn't she?
posted by five fresh fish at 1:32 PM on July 14, 2012

I have often wondered if she would ever bring a cat to one of these shindigs.
posted by Spatch at 1:51 PM on July 14, 2012

Wait, is that pedobear and the pink haired girl?
posted by percor at 2:01 PM on July 14, 2012

Wait, is that pedobear and the pink haired girl?

Um, literally the first comment in the thread explained what their costumes were. =x
posted by kavasa at 2:29 PM on July 14, 2012

Peggy, c'mon. You tweet, you design superhero costumes, you go to Comicon, you invent telepresence devices. You don't just write SF, you are SF.

Similarly, and famously, Salvidor Dali said "I don't do drugs; I am drugs."

We should think about which other writers and artists are actually anthropomorphic personifications of what incorporeal things.
posted by JHarris at 3:14 PM on July 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

She isn't science fiction so much as socio-political, isn't she?

Having run into several Atwood rage-outs here and elsewhere on the Net, I think a great many of the people who are deeply insulted by Atwood's refusal to call her work science fiction are the same sort of people who very much want a more socio-political orientation in the genre. Part of the animus seems to come from her implicit upholding of the stereotype of science fiction as all aliens, ray guns, and time travel - glittering tech-obsessive whitewashed retrofutures with no depth to them.

People who like the latter sort of science fiction tend not to get all hackled up about Atwood, which makes sense because they're unlikely to read much of her stuff.
posted by AdamCSnider at 3:27 PM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

A position many of us find incredibly insulting, for several reasons which probably don't need to be detailed in this thread.

I find it a bit more embarrassing then insulting. It just seems kind of silly. But she probably realizes at this point there's more money in writing ' genre' fiction (like harry potter or twilight) then 'literary' fiction anyway. Even if it's the same book, but with a different marketing campaign.

People who like the latter sort of science fiction tend not to get all hackled up about Atwood, which makes sense because they're unlikely to read much of her stuff.

And the irony is they would like it. Other than the fact that it is depressing, it has everything that sci-fi fans would usually like in a book, IMO. Obviously, you can't discuss it in too much depth without spoiling it though.
posted by delmoi at 5:14 PM on July 14, 2012

Oh shit, my friend is in one of her tweeted photos. Go Sarah!
posted by book 'em dano at 11:23 PM on July 14, 2012