After meeting with the professor of philosophy who inspired this panel idea, I procured a copy of the complete works of Zhuangzi (spelling varies wildly), translated by Burton Watson, and have started reading through to pick out passages that are particularly interesting and good for people who won't be familiar with Chinese, or potentially any philosophy! The Zhuangzi, and in particular the Watson translation, was selected because of the way the text is composed. It's a fairly easy read, with most of the passages being narrative and metaphor. The passages are short, usually a paragraph long, but can be read continuously, which offers some flexibility in terms of the topics we want to discuss and for how long.

I'm going to inquire about another text, the Mengzi, this coming Tuesday. This is because the Zhuangzi is a Daoist text, and I'm worried that it's subtle points might be more aggravating than thought provoking to some people. The Mengzi, a Confucian text, will, in my opinion, be more palatable to the average person raised in western culture, and so choosing texts from there might be a good way to ease people into the discussion.

It has been interesting going back to read over the first few chapters of the text. I hadn't realized just how much my understanding had deteriorated, to the point that I could recognize passages without being able to make sense of them. However, I'm nearing the end of the second chapter, and I think I've hit my stride. Also, I need a bit of a lesson on how to pronounce the names I'm coming across; when reading them I have no trouble, but I'm not actually sure how to form the sounds, and it would be embarrassing to be unpracticed when I have so long to prepare.

~Velth

P.S. I still haven't submitted this panel yet, as it appears they haven't opened up that part of the Anthrocon registration yet; I'm sure I'll post a journal about it once I do.