The conference that I was in Honolulu for, the Hawai'i International Conference on Arts and Humanties, was held at the Ilokai Renaissance Hotel, one of the big resort hotels at the western end of Waikiki. It was rather what you might expect: lots of potted plants and framed art of tropical beaches in the public areas, stores selling aloha shirts and muumuus galore, a bridal store complete with wedding gowns and tuxes that you could rent. It would seem to me that if you traveled all the way to Hawai‘i to get married, you wouldn’t overlook the minor detail of what you might actually wear for the occasion, but I suppose it could happen.
Much of the conference was kind of surreal, sometimes in a very good way. The big ballroom in which poster sessions and meals were held was filled at breakfast and lunch with pointy-headed academics, myself included, all sitting at tables and wolfing down eggs, pastries, pastas, chicken, salads, fruit, desserts galore, the usual kind of hotel buffet food. The wait staff of the room, efficient nearly to the point of annoying, ran their feet off fetching coffee and tea for everyone.
The conveners wisely decided not to assign places at the tables—not that they really could have—so one ended sitting up with whomever. This was a wise tactical move, as it was a great way to meet people: Helene from Sweden; David, the dancer from L.A.; the urban planner from Ottawa whose name I can’t remember; Alison, the scholar of South African literature at Queen’s in Canada; and many others. At the first lunch we were serenaded by the Georgia Tech University Men’s Glee Club, whose members attended the conference to perform in a workshop demo with their director. Hearing an arrangement of “Proud Mary” sung a cappella while eating tropical fruits and chatting with a West Coast director about theater design was an experience I don’t expect to repeat soon.
The sessions themselves were a mixed lot. The conveners probably intended to make the conference a real interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, but organizing sessions randomly may not have been the best strategy. The four papers in my session were: mine, on contemporary Japanese writer Banana Yoshimoto; a paper on the photographic children’s books of Pippi Longstocking fame Astrid Lindgren; a paper on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray; and a paper on dramatic conventions in 17th-century Spanish drama of the Golden Age. Discussion was somewhat fleeting.
All the sessions were like that, which made it a bit difficult to find what you were looking for, and even more difficult to generate any kind of discussion. I mean, we’re all generally well read, but nobody’s read everything, and academics read within their fields. A music session might have a paper on vocal technique in a Bach cantata followed by a paper on the use of instruments in Australian aboriginal ceremonial music. Well, OK . . . on the other hand, you found out about things you never would’ve known before.
Of course, many people came to the conference, went to their session, and then disappeared into the pleasures of Waikiki for the rest of the time. One can hardly blame them, as most participants came from the wintry wilds of North America and Hawai‘i must have felt balmy and wonderful right after Christmas. It seems to me that if you want people to attend the entire conference, you shouldn’t schedule it in January on a tropical island. More to come.
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