This was my first time at Jus In Bello con – and my first time in Rome – so needless to say, it was quite an adventure. It’s a very different model of convention, so I was curious to see how it compared to the Creation model of US cons that I know quite well. Long story short? In some ways, it’s better and in some ways it’s not.
The better comes from the more relaxed feel of the con – there’s plenty of security to keep physical order, but the norms for what can be talked about and asked about are much looser. This is, no doubt, in part because we’re in Italy and not the US, where everyone is ridiculously hung up about anything having to do with sex and thus there are strange rules about not asking actors perfectly reasonable questions. At JiB, the questions were playful and sometimes delightfully innuendo-filled (either intentionally or unintentionally thanks to the language differences), and as a result the actors were free to be the same. That meant panels that were flirty and dirty and just plain fun – and that left me with my stomach muscles literally aching from laughing so much.