Coming Soon from Disney: Strange Worlds

 Trailer for an upcoming Disney film. It looks like a version of Journey to the Center of the Earth.

May the Fourth Be With You

Happy Star Wars Day!

Celebrate with some old-school animation with the Ewoks, now on Disney+.

Mythcon 51 Update and New CFP (5/15/21; virtual event for Summer 2021)

 Further news from the Mythopoeic Society: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm

Mythcon 51

---

Mythcon 51
A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON

Moving Online - Dates To Be Determined

   

---

ANNOUNCEMENT

Due to ongoing health concerns and the realization that we cannot now plan something that may violate future New Mexico state health and safety regulations, whatever they are in July-August of this year, the Council of Stewards has decided to postpone the next in-person Mythcon until summer of 2022; the date will be July 29-August 1, 2022. Our venue and Guests of Honor have all agreed to this change and the conference theme will remain the same.

Because the costs associated with a virtual online event are less than the costs of an in person event, if you are already a member of Mythcon 51, your membership will automatically "roll over" to next year (Mythcon 52 in 2022) but if you cannot attend next year, please contact mythcon@mythsoc.org and request a refund of your Mythcon 51 membership. For those who paid the non-member prices, your membership in the Mythopoeic Society associated with joining the conference will be extended by a year (again!). Thank you for understanding.

The virtual option will be very different from our usual Mythcons, but what we miss out on we hope to make up for in new and different ways, and we’ll see everyone once it’s safe to do so. On some level this is a chance to get back to our Mythopoeic Society roots and gather with friends (if virtually!) to just discuss what we love. Best of all, the cost of registration will be steeply reduced, though prices have not been set yet.

Check back for confirmed details in Mythprint #397 as well as Mythlore #138, and as always on our website, www.mythcon.org. Thank you for understanding!

---

Call for Papers (subject to change)

Papers of the traditional Mythopoeic variety are still welcome, though we are looking forward to trying out a new panel model that we are calling Panel Discussions (see below).

Time slots: Individual long papers may still have hour-long time slots but are now encouraged to be no more than 30 minutes for the paper and 15 minutes for discussion; Individual short papers about 15 minutes for the paper and 10 minutes for discussion; Panels are now 60 minutes, about 30 minutes for the panel and 20 minutes for discussion. For traditional paper and panel proposals:

Email papers abstracts of 200-500 words to:
Cami Agan (Papers Coordinator),
cami.agan@oc.edu

Email panels abstracts of 50-150 words to:
Leslie Donovan (Panels Coordinator),
leslie.a.donovan@gmail.com

Presenters who have already submitted have the option of presenting at Mythcon 51 virtually or being automatically accepted into the Mythcon 52 program. All presenters must register for the conference at which they wish to present.

Eligible presenters should see details on our Alexei Kondratiev student paper award at: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/alexei.htm.

Discussion Panel and Alternative Programming Options
Though we have not formally revised the call for papers just yet, we are excited to experiment with different presentation models that may work better over an online platform, privileging panels of short papers or group discussion panels.

Have a topic in mind you want to discuss, but pandemic brain has got you down so you don’t want to write a paper about it? Revive the roots of the Society by proposing to Moderate a Discussion Panel for Mythcon 51—virtually! Moderators would need to come prepared with a mythopoeic discussion topic, some opening remarks, some questions for the attendees, and plan to facilitate discussion.

Want to submit a Discussion Panel, or have an idea for Alternative Virtual Mythcon programming?
Email 200-500 word proposals to:
Megan Abrahamson
mythprint@mythsoc.org

The new deadline for submissions is May 15, 2021. Please check in on Facebook, Twitter, or www.mythcon.org for an updated and complete Call For Papers as well as other updates about the now-virtual conference. 

Mythcon 52 Update (Summer 2022)

 The latest from the Mythopoeic Society: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm

Mythcon 52

New Dates!    July 29 - August 1, 2022

---

Mythcon 52
The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien

Albuquerque, New Mexico
July 29 - August 1, 2022

  

---

ANNOUNCEMENT

Due to ongoing health concerns and the realization that we cannot now plan something that may violate future New Mexico state health and safety regulations, whatever they are in July-August of this year, the Council of Stewards has decided to postpone the next in-person Mythcon until summer of 2022; the date will be July 29-August 1, 2022. Our venue and Guests of Honor have all agreed to this change and the conference theme will remain the same.

Your membership will automatically "roll over" to next year but if you cannot attend next year, please contact mythcon@mythsoc.org and request a refund of your Mythcon 51 membership. For those who paid the non-member prices, your membership in the Mythopoeic Society associated with joining the conference will be extended by a year (again!). Thank you for understanding.

---

Theme: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien

Mythcon 52’s theme provides multiple opportunities to explore the Other in fantasy and mythopoeic literature. Tolkien spoke in “On Fairy-stories” of “the desire to visit, free as a fish, the deep sea; or the longing for the noiseless, gracious, economical flight of a bird.” We invite discussion about the types of fantasy that are more likely to put us into contact with the alien, such as time portal fantasy and space travel fantasy. In addition to Inklings, some writers who deal particularly well with the truly alien who might be explored include Lovecraft, Gaiman, Le Guin, Tepper, and others. Other topics that might be fruitfully explored are: depictions of the alien Other in film and television (Contact, Arrival, HBO’s Watchmen, etc.); developing constructed languages that are truly different from those of Earth-based humans; fantastical Others in indigenous myths (such as Coyote and Spider Woman from Native American mythology); and American folklore about the alien (flying saucers, alien abduction, Area 51, Roswell).

---

Guests of Honor

Rivera Sun - Author Guest of Honor

Rivera Sun is a change-maker, a cultural creative, a protest novelist, and an advocate for nonviolence and social justice. She is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, The Roots of Resistance, and other novels. Her young adult fantasy series, the Ari Ara Series, has been widely acclaimed by teachers, parents, and peace activists for its blending of fantasy and adventure with social justice issues. Going beyond dragon-slayers and sword-swingers, heroes and sheroes in Ari Ara’s world stop wars and wage peace. They use active nonviolence to make powerful change. In all her works, Rivera Sun advocates that if we want to build a culture of peace, we have to tell new stories that still appreciate, but go beyond the old myths, epics, and legends that rehash outdated war and violence narratives. The Way Between, the first book in the Ari Ara Series, has been read by numerous groups of all ages, while the second book in the series, The Lost Heir, is the winner of the 2019 Nautilus Award Silver Medal in Middle Grade Fiction.

Rivera Sun’s essays have been published in hundreds of journals nationwide. She is a frequent speaker and presenter at schools, colleges and universities, where The Dandelion Insurrection has been taught in literature and political science courses. Rivera Sun is also the editor of Nonviolence News, an activist, and a trainer in making change with nonviolence. Her essays and writings are syndicated by Peace Voice and have appeared in journals nationwide. She lives in an Earthship house in New Mexico.

David Bratman - Scholar Guest of Honor

David Bratman is has been reading Tolkien for over fifty years, and has been writing Tolkien scholarship for nearly as long. His earliest contribution to the field was the first-ever published Tale of Years for the First Age, right after The Silmarillion was published. Since then he’s published articles with titles like “Top Ten Rejected Plot Twists from The Lord of the Rings,” “Hobbit Names Aren’t from Kentucky,” and “Liquid Tolkien” (on Tolkien and music). He’s been co-editor of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review since 2013, and has written or edited its annual “Year’s Work in Tolkien Studies” since 2004. David edited The Masques of Amen House by Charles Williams and contributed the bio-bibliographical appendix on the Inklings to Diana Pavlac Glyer’s The Company They Keep. He has also written on C.S. Lewis, Ursula Le Guin, Mervyn Peake, Neil Gaiman, and others. For the Mythopoeic Society he was editor of the monthly bulletin Mythprint for fifteen years, and has worked on many Mythopoeic Conferences, including serving twice as chair. He’s a retired academic librarian and an active classical music reviewer who lives with his wife, Berni (a soprano and violinist), and two cats in a house they call Minnipin Cottage.

---

Location

Please plan to join us at the Ramada Plaza Hotel by Wyndham in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Mythcon 52. Albuquerque is a wonderful “destination city” where Mythcon has been held only once before in 2011 (Mythcon 42) and is well worth the return.

Cancellations at Tor.com

Tor.com now has a detailed list on conventions and conferences that have been cancelled.

Full details at https://www.tor.com/2020/03/13/coronavirus-the-sci-fi-fantasy-conventions-canceled-so-far/.

Conference Cancellations as of 3/15/20

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the follow events have recently been cancelled.

Follow the links for more details.

2020 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2020/icfa-41-is-cancelled/.

2020 Conference of the Popular Culture Association: https://pcaaca.org/conference/2020/update-2020-pca-conference-march-13-2020.

Fantastic Area Sessions 2018

I am pleased to announce the schedule for the area's tenth-anniversary sessions. My thanks to the program chair, Marty Norden, for his help in organizing.

The complete conference schedule and registration information can be accessed at https://nepca.blog/2017-conference/.


Session I: Friday, October 27, 1:00-2:30pm

PANEL 1 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Horrors Past and Present
CHAIR: Amie Doughty, SUNY Oneonta
“Horrifying Mythical Obstacles: Masculine Anxieties and Alternate Gazes in Robert Eggers’s The Witch (2015),” Dustin Fisher, University of Cincinnati
“Images of the Indigenous Monster in The Green Inferno (2013),” Erica Tortolani, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“The Decomposing Youths and the Revival of the Zombies in Contemporary Korea,” Ha Rim Park, Seoul National University
“The Bunhill Apocalypse: Robert Aickman’s ‘Larger than Oneself’ (1966) as a Post-Christian Metaphor,” Steffen Silvis, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Session II: Friday, October 27, 2:45-4:15pm

PANEL 8 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Meeting Monsters
CHAIR: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar
“‘Everything That Ought to Have Remained Hidden’: Sublimation and the Uncanny in Anya's Ghost (2011),” Shane Gomes, North Dakota State University
“Murder, Reproduction, and Bad Women in Junji Ito’s Tomie,” Rahel Worku, University of Maryland
“A Trekkie’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse,” Cinzia DiGiulio, Merrimack College
“Scientists Become Monsters: The Strain’s Dr. Goodweather,” Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

Session III: Friday, October 27, 4:30-6:00pm

PANEL 15 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: New Approaches to the Heroic in Fantastic Fiction
CHAIR: Shane Gomes, North Dakota State University
“Happy Endings: Frankenstein’s Creature as a Romantic Lead,” Maggie Damken, Independent Scholar
“Decentering Monsterhood: Blurred Histories, Genres and Narrative Identities in John M. Ford’s Fantasy The Last Hot Time (2000),” Angela Gustafsson Whyland, Southern New Hampshire University
“Guinevere, the Warrior Queen of Camelot?: The Altered Fate of Guinevere in Recent Comics,” Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar
 
 
Session IV: Saturday, October 28, 8:45-10:15am

PANEL 22 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: New Approaches to the Fantastic
CHAIR: Nova Seals, Salve Regina University
“The Princess Bride and Slavoj Žižek's Fantasy of the Real,” Heather Flyte, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
“Madness and Mixed-Bloods: Racial Metaphors in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye Series,” Amie Doughty, SUNY Oneonta
“Heredity And The Hero: The Role of Heredity in Shaping Popular Heroes and Why It Matters,” Cheryl Hunter, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Session V: Saturday, October 28, 10:30am-noon

PANEL 29 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Re-Thinking the Monstrous
CHAIR: Heather Flyte, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
“‘If You're So Hungry, Why Don’t You Get a Job?’: Patrick Bateman as Neoliberal Monster and Hero in American Psycho,” Caitlin Duffy, Stony Brook University
“Tackling the Femme: The Psycho-Biddy Genre,” James Patrick Carraghan, Kutztown University
“The Aesthetics of Abjection in Anna Dressed in Blood (2011),” Nova Seals, Salve Regina University
“The Brides of Dracula Tell All: Dracula as Romantic Protagonist in Recent Neo-Victorian Fiction,” Terry Riley, Bloomsburg University

Session VI: Saturday, October 28, 1:30-3pm

PANEL 36 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: 199 Years Old and Still Going Strong
CHAIR: Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University
“Frankenstein and the Real: A Psychoanalytic Look at Power and the Unconscious,” Emilie Lewis, Simmons College
“Coexistence of Gender Binaries: Bisexualism in Frankenstein,” Christopher Maye, California State University, Long Beach
“Modern Prometheus Bound,” Dennin Ellis, Independent Scholar

Session VII: Saturday, October 28, 3:15-4:45pm

PANEL 43 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: New England Horrors
CHAIR: Cheryl Hunter, University of Massachusetts Lowell
“Body Horror in Lovecraft Fiction and Film,” Shastri Akella, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“The Dead Past in New England Vernacular Poetry,” N. C. Christopher Couch, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“Tilting at Vampires,” Katie Gagnon, Independent Scholar

Christopher Nolan Is Wired

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan edits the December 2014 issue of Wired (out now). A trailer for the issue appears on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao4Uc3JkfgY, but I was unable to embed the video here. The collaboration is in celebration of the release of Nolan's last film Interstellar. There are a number of pieces about space/time travel in general (including a very long piece on the making of The Right Stuff film from 1983), but the most interesting to me were the ones that offered insight into the filmmaking process through the words and experiences of Nolan and two of the co-creators--astrophysicist Kip Thorne and production designer Nathan Crowley--involved in bringing his film to life. As an added bonus, the issue also includes a comic book style story set within the world of the film.

Award News

The 2014 Mythopoeic Awards for fiction and scholarship were announced earlier this month. Details at http://www.mythsoc.org/news/mythopoeic-awards-2014-winners-announced/.

And, this past weekend, the 2014 Hugo Awards for prose, graphic, and dramatic fiction were announced. Details at http://www.thehugoawards.org/2014/08/2014-hugo-award-winners/.

New Doctor Who--Who Cares?

Apparently the BBC announced yesterday that actor Peter Capaldi will be taking over as the next Doctor Who. Details (and some comments by fans at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23570354). Capaldi is 55 now, so this a big change from the younger Doctors we've had in recent years and (perhaps) suggests a change in the series's demographics (or the network's propagandist strategies).


However, as my post's title suggests, I'm not sure I really care about the Doctor anymore. Its been a good--sometimes great--run since 2005, but the departure of "the Ponds" (Amy Pond and Rory Williams) earlier in Season 7 seemed like a large slap in the face to fans (details at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2210593/Doctor-Who-fans-say-goodbye-Amy-Pond-killed-hands-weeping-angels.html and http://www.themarysue.com/steven-moffat-ponds/ and http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/aug/31/doctor-who-farewell-amy-ponds and (sorry) http://doctorwhotv.co.uk/most-heartbreaking-moments-of-the-ponds-exit-40223.htm [there's lots more to view at https://www.google.com/search?q=doctor+who+ponds+no+more]; more on Amy at http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/aug/31/doctor-who-farewell-amy-ponds) and I haven't had the desire to watch further.


Michael Torregrossa
Blog Editor

Jonathan Hardy RIP

Meant to post this earlier. Actor Jonathan Hardy, the voice of Rygel on Farscape, passed away last month. Details at The Examiner (http://www.examiner.com/article/jonathan-hardy-of-farscape-dies-at-71) and a tribute at the Jim Henson Company channel on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL872E4B06325C6421&feature=plcp).

Sherlock Returns

The hit BBC series Sherlock, a modern-day updating of the Sherlock Holmes story, returns to PBS next month and, also, to DVD. Details at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/sherlock/.

Odyssey 2012

The Odyssey Writing Workshop is now accepting applications for its next workshop to be held from June 11 through July 20, 2012. Deadlines as follows:

Applications for Early Admission due Jan. 31, 2012

Regular Application Deadline April 7, 2012


Further details at http://www.sff.net/odyssey/.

2011 In Memoriam

As the year draws to a close, we often reflect on events of the past twelve months, and the latest issue of the Science Fiction Book Club catalog includes a listing of genre authors lost this year. It was a surprising list, as it includes both authors I was not familiar as well as one's whose work I had enjoyed but did not know that had passed on. Those featured were:

Leslie Esdalie Banks
Sara Douglass
Brian Jacques
Joel Rosenberg
Joanna Russ
William Sleator
Diana Wynne Jones


A noticeable omission, perhaps she died after press-time, is the recent death of Anne McCaffrey last month.