Northeast Fantastic: May 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

Arthur Christmas FF Trailer

Coming this December from Sony Pictures:

Movies of Interest Coming Soon

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

CFP: Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy (6/1/11; Toronto 9/10/11)

http://www.yorku.ca/accsff/CallForPapers.html

The 2011 Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy will be held Saturday, September 10, 2011, in Toronto, Ontario, at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy, one of the most important collections of fantastic literature in the world.

We invite proposals for papers in any area of Canadian science fiction and fantasy, including:

-studies of individual works and authors;
-comparative studies;
-studies that place works in their literary and/or
cultural contexts.

Papers may be about Canadian works in any medium: literature, film, graphic novels and comic books, and so on. For studies of the audio-visual media, preference will be given to discussions of works produced in Canada or involving substantial Canadian creative contributions.

Papers should be no more than 20 minutes long, and geared toward a general as well as an academic audience. Please submit proposals (max. 2 pages), preferably by email, to:

Dr. Allan Weiss
Department of English
York University
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, ON M3H 3N4
aweiss@yorku.ca

Deadline: June 1, 2011

CFP: Spiritual Matters/Matters of the Spirit (9/30/11; NCSA 3/22-24/12)

http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/ncsa/2012cfp.pdf

Call for Papers
Spiritual Matters/Matters of the Spirit
33rd ANNUAL CONFERENCE
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY STUDIES ASSOCIATION
Asheville, North Carolina March 22-24, 2012

From Romanticism's spiritual resurgence to the interrogations of Darwinism and science, the nineteenth century was immersed in conversation about the place of spirituality and religion in society, politics, and the arts. Paper and panel proposals are welcome on all aspects of belief, religion, and spirituality in the long nineteenth century, from 1789 to 1914.

Papers might address: retreats, communes, and utopias; visionaries and prophets; spiritual awakenings; esprit de corps and group spirit; revivals and reforms; religious doctrines and dogmas; proselytes, converts, and newcomers; spiritualism and the Feminist Movement; cults, cabals, and conspiracies; free spirits, lunatics, and addicts; revered commodities and capital; spiritual growth and enlightenment; perspectives on religious belief; acts of faith and interfaith; Theosophy and mysticism; shamans, mediums, and psychics; non-European spiritual traditions; representations of emotions and the unconscious; altered states; secular spirituality; spirituality of agnostics and atheists; aesthetic spirituality; theology and spirituality; ethnicity and spirituality; fears and phobias of spirituality and religion; spiritual conflicts and combats; sacred texts, pictures, music and shrines; spiritual tours and monuments; sacrilegious and blasphemous acts; matters of atonement and redemption; reactions against spirituality or religion. Other interpretations of the conference theme are welcome.

Please e-mail abstracts (250 words) for 20-minute papers that provide the author's name and paper title in the heading, as well as a one-page c.v., to Phylis Floyd AND Michael Duffy by September 30, 2011. Presenters will be notified in November, 2011.

Phylis Floyd, Program Co-Chair
Michigan State University
floyd@msu.edu

Michael Duffy, Program Co-Chair
East Carolina University
duffym@ecu.edu

Friday, May 20, 2011

Wild Kratts (TV 2011-)

PBS Kids is now airing the SF-adventure series Wild Kratts. The protagonists are animal lovers who obtain superpowers by researching the abilities of various animal species and then syncing the DNA of the featured animal(s) to their high-tech "creature power suits." Its a fun series for kids (and adults), and the power-ups are reminiscent of the 1980s' cartoon Centurions.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Inception (FF 2010)

I'm trying to catch up on recent films/TV shows that might be of interest.

The recent film Inception is now available on DVD and BluRay and to purchase or rent from iTunes. The film is visually interesting but not much substance.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

NeMLA 2011

The NeMLA 2011 Convention was held last month at the Hyatt New Brunswick in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from April 7-10, 2011, and included a great number of sessions of interest. The complete program (divided by days) can be accessed at: http://www.nemla.org/convention/2011/index.html.

ALA Conference in Boston

The 22nd Annual Conference of the American Literature Association will be held later this month at The Westin Copley Place, Boston, Massachusetts, from 26-29 May 2011, and there are a number of sessions of interest, including many on Gothic themes in American literature. The full program and registration information can be accessed at: http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/ala2/american_literature_assoc_2011.html.

2011 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

The 2011 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts was held this past March in Orlando and featured a number of papers of interest to our readers. The complete program can be accessed at http://iafa.highpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/icfa2011-program-with-abstracts.pdf.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

2012 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts has posted the following advance notice for its 2012 conference:

The Monstrous Fantastic
The 33rd International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

March 21-25, 2012
Orlando Airport Marriott, Orlando, Florida
Guest of Honor: China Miéville
Guest Scholar: Jeffrey J. Cohen
Special Guest Emeritus: Brian Aldiss

Further details will be posted as they become available.

PCA/ACA Conference in San Antonio

There were a number of sessions of interest at last month's Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture & American Culture Association and the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture & American Culture Association held in San Antonio, Texas, from 4/20-23/11. Unfortunately, I cannot copy and paste from the PDF version of the program to list these sessions. The complete program can be accessed at http://pcaaca.org/conference/conf_program.php.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Falling Skies--Coming Soon to TNT

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mythlore 29.3-4 Now Available

The latest issue of Mythlore 29.3-4 (Spring/Summer 2011) was mailed to subscribers this week. Contents include the following:

A Bibliography of Glen GoodKnight’s Articles, Reviews, and Major Editorials in Mythlore
—Janet Brennan Croft
Narrative Dualism in C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength
—Sadie H. Bullard
A Matter of Time: C.S. Lewis’s Dark Tower Manuscript and Composition Process
—Jonathan B. Himes
Dialogic War: From The Battle of Maldon to the War of the Ring
—Peter Grybauskas
Art According to Romantic Theology: Charles Williams’s Analysis of Dante Reapplied to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Leaf by Niggle”
—Michael Milburn
The Dantean Structure of The Great Divorce
—Joe R. Christopher
Cordial Dislike: Reinventing the Celestial Ladies of Pearl and Purgatorio in Tolkien’s Galadriel
—Sarah Downey
The Precious and the Pearl: The Influence of Pearl on the Nature of the One Ring
—Noah Koubenec
Two Rings to Rule Them All: A Comparative Study of Tolkien and Wagner
—Jamie McGregor
Túrin and Aragorn: Embracing and Evading Fate
—Janet Brennan Croft

Reviews

A Sword Between the Sexes? C.S. Lewis and the Gender Debates, by Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen (Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher)
The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis, edited by Robert MacSwain and Michael Ward (Reviewed by Gregory Bassham)
The Law and Harry Potter, edited by Jeffrey E. Thomas and Franklin G. Snyder (Reviewed by Douglas C. Kane)
Merlin: Knowledge and Power Through the Ages by Stephen Knight (Reviewed by Harley J. Sims)
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Sources of Inspiration, edited by Stratford Caldecott and Thomas Honegger (Reviewed by Charles A. Huttar)
One Earth, One People by Marek Oziewicz (Reviewed by Donna R. White)
War of the Fantasy Worlds: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien on Art and Imagination by Martha C. Sammons (Reviewed by David Bratman)