Thursday, May 31, 2012

Odd Life of Timothy Green

I thought I had posted on this before:

The Odd Life of Timothy Green, a fantasy film due out this summer from Disney:


Frankenstein On Film: Old and New

I'm taking a graduate seminar on Frankenstein this summer and thought it might be interesting to look at the first adaptation of the novel to film, Thomas Edison's 1910 Frankenstein, and the most recent, Tim Burton's upcoming release of Frankenweenie (2012), an animated feature film based on Burton's short film from 1984 (watch the original on YouTube).




Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Dissections Spring 2011

Here are the details of the Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror Vol. 6:

Contents

Interview with Elizabeth Miller
by Gina Wisker
Artwork: Tooth Fairy by Kathy Davis Patterson: 1

Interview with Suzy McKee Charnas
by Gina Wisker
Artwork: Communion by Kathy Davis Patterson: 2

Interview with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
by Gina Wisker
Artwork: Longing by Kathy Davis Patterson: 3

Writing in a Different Vein
by Lawrence C. Connolly: 4

Woman with a Chainsaw
by Judith Kerman
Jack Knife
A Stabbing
Harsh Light
by Nicholas Alexander
Artwork: Repose by Kathy Davis Patterson: 5

Inner Vampire
by Jaleen Grove
The Thing That Vampires Fear
by Nenad Jakovljevic
Zombie Sonnet
by Jamieson Ridenhour
Resistance, Transformation and Heroism in Blade
by Anthony Hernandez: 6

A Fragment
by Diane Mason
Artwork by Andrew Selwood: 7

Challenging and Restoring Normacly in Stoker's Dracula and Matheson's I Am Legend
by Sarah Benton: 8

Victim vs Companion: The Vampire Consumed by Love
by Barbara Gaddy: 9

Discovering Dramatic Horror
by Thomas K. Fagerholm: 10

Rotted Soil
by Sam Williams: 11

Timbuk 2
by Liam Wisker: 12

Extract from Serbian Nocturnal Sheriffs, Chapter XII: 'Choices'
by Nenad Jakovljevic: 13

CW's Beauty and the Beast?

CW has posted several trailers for its new series Beauty and the Beast. It looks to be paranormal romance, but there is no indication yet as to why the male lead is a beast.




Monday, May 28, 2012

NEPCA Proposals are Due

Proposals for this year's sessions (in Rochester, NY) are due by 1 June. The complete CFP can be accessed at http://sf-fantasy-legend.blogspot.com/2012/02/nepca-2012-cfp-revised.html.

Michael Torregrossa,
Area Chair

Friday, May 18, 2012

Mythlore Spring/Summer 2012

Sorry to have missed this:


Mythlore 117/118
Volume 30, Issue 3/4
2012 Spring/Summer
190 pages


Table of Contents

Editorial
—Janet Brennan Croft

The Road of Our Senses: Search for Personal Meaning and the Limitations of Myth in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods
—Rut Blomqvist

From Despoina to Δ
—Joe R. Christopher

Psyche in New York: The Devil Wears Prada Updates the Myth
—Janet Brennan Croft

Aphrodite on the Home Front: E.R. Eddison and World War II
—Joe Young

Faramir and the Heroic Ideal of the Twentieth Century: Or, How Aragorn Died at the Somme
—Steven Brett Carter

The Fall of Gondor and the Fall of Troy: Tolkien and Book II of The Aeneid
—Alexander M. Bruce

Watchful Dragons and Sinewy Gnomes: C.S. Lewis’s Use of Modern Fairy Tales
—Ruth Berman

The Myths of the Author: Tolkien and the Medieval Origins of the Word Hobbit
—Michael Livingston

Reviews

The Christian Goddess: Archetype and Theology in the Fantasies of George MacDonald. Bonnie Gaarden. (Reviewed by Scott McLaren)

Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy. Janice M. Bogstad and Philip E. Kaveny, eds. (Reviewed by Emily E. Auger)

Good Dragons are Rare: An Inquiry into Literary Dragons East and West. Fanfan Chen and Thomas Honegger, eds. (Reviewed by David D. Oberhelman)

Critical Perspectives on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials: Essays on the Novels, the Film and the Stage Productions. Steven Barfield and Katharine Cox, eds. (Reviewed by Amy S. Rodgers)

From Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented Languages. Michael Adams, ed. (Reviewed by Harley J. Sims)

Mythopoeic Narnia: Memory, Metaphor, and Metamorphosis in The Chronicles of Narnia. Salwa Khoddam. (Reviewed by Holly Ordway)

Abiding in the Sanctuary: The Waite-Trinick Tarot: A Christian Mystical Tarot (1917–1923). Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz. (Reviewed by Emily E. Auger)

Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature, and Identity. Carl Phelpstead. (Reviewed by Sara Brown)

North Wind: A Journal of George MacDonald Studies. #29 (2010). VII: An Anglo-American Literary Review. #28 (2011). Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review. #8 (2011). (Reviewed by Janet Brennan Croft)

Fringe Collection Update

I'm sorry to have missed updating this in time; calls for papers are so ephemeral now. The latest posted deadline was 15 May 2012:

Shapeshifters, Cyborgs, and Psychedelics: Analyzing the Alternate Worlds of J. J. Abrams' Fringe
Call for Papers Date: 2012-05-15
Date Submitted: 2012-04-22
Announcement ID: 194120

Coeditors Sherry Ginn, Tanya R. Cochran, and Paul Zinder invite proposals or completed essays for an edited collection of scholarly works that explore J.J. Abrams’ science fiction television series Fringe (2008-present). We are interested in a variety of topics as well as diverse disciplinary approaches. Proposals should demonstrate not only a clear methodology and strong thesis but also a familiarity with current conversations and publications about the series. We would be especially pleased to see innovative perspectives on unusual topics such as the show’s paratexts or production elements. Though not prescriptive, the following list of topics may be productive to consider:

*Alternate Worlds
*Auteur Theory—J.J. Abrams, creator
*Broadcasting/Scheduling
*Casting
*Characters/Character Development
*(Dis)Ability—representations of mental illness, psychotherapeutic techniques, (de)institutionalization
*Drug Use—recreational use as well as therapeutic use of recreational drugs
*Discourse Analysis
*Fandom
*Gender
*Genre
*Government Intervention/Conspiracy Theories
*History—LSD trials, emergence of transpersonal
psychology/Consciousness Studies
*Intertextuality
*Interpersonal Communication
*Myth(ologies)
*(Neuro)Science and Technology—ethics (e.g., human experimentations)
*Philosophy/Spirituality/Religion
*Paratexts—web content, fan fiction, glyphs
*Production—cinematography, editing, musical score
*Predecessors—The X-Files, Regenesis, Eleventh Hour, etc.
*Psychology
*Race
*Rhetoric

We strongly recommend authors familiarize themselves with these publications to extend and/or challenge published analyses of the series:

*Grazier, Kevin R., ed. Fringe Science: Parallel Universes, White Tulips, and Mad Scientists. Dallas: Smart Pop, 2011. Print. 
*Stuart, Sarah Clarke. Into the Looking Glass: Exploring the Worlds of Fringe. Toronto: ECW, 2011. Print.

QUERIES AND SUBMISSIONS
Queries are welcomed; please email us at fringecollection@gmail.com. Send 350-500-word proposals or 5,000-7,000-word essays in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) to the same email address; please label your attachment with “Fringe,” your last name, and the date (day.month.year)—e.g., “Fringe, Cochran, 1.3.12.” We suggest but do not require that proposals include a working bibliography. Please provide in a separate document or in the body of the email a brief biography and selected vita.

PRODUCTION TIMELINE
We are currently negotiating with a publisher and working on the following timeline:
*Proposals Due: 15 May 2012
*Notification of Acceptance: 15 June 2012
*First Drafts Due: 1 November 2012

Sherry Ginn
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
1333 Jake Alexander Blvd. South
Salisbury, NC 28146
Email: fringecollection@gmail.com

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Upcoming TV

TV Guide has a list of promising pilots, and a number of them are telefantasy, including Arrow, based on the popular Green Arrow comic book character; Elementary, an updating of Sherlock Homes; and The Selection, set in the far future (click the links for more details).