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Current LGBTQ+ Aspects in SF&F
Get PDFThis panel was inspired by several things coming together. An awareness of Eleanor Arnason’s pioneering work in including LGBTQ+ characters in her novels, such as To the Resurrection Station, and some of her Lydia Duluth stories, and particularly in Ring of Swords and the other Hwarhath Stories, where this focus is a major theme. Then, there were the increasing number of books taking up these themes on the long and short lists for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, mirroring the changes that have occurred over the past few decades, so that early in our history these themes were not generally present, but this year nearly all of the finalists on all three lists feature LGBTQ+ characters and/or themes, sometimes incidentally, and sometimes as a major focus of the book. Our panelists include an earlier explorer in an MFA finalist from a couple of decades ago, and at least one author of a current MFA finalist
Sealed in the Sacred Realm: Coming of Age in the Liminal Spaces of Hyrule
Get PDFThe Legend of Zelda franchise commonly uses alternate dimensions or worlds in its storytelling. These dimensions are often tied to darkness — being a place where evil waits, gathering strength, or a sister-world that has fallen to evil and needs liberation — providing the hero, Link, with the primary conflict driving his adventure. Alongside these larger worlds that provide conflict, there exist smaller dimensions, liminal spaces where Link and a small cast of other heroic characters are brought for physical and spiritual maturation. We will discuss how these liminal spaces function as doors through which the player as Link crosses the threshold of the hero’s journey, how these interludes reinforce Link’s journey as coming of age narrative, and how the varying levels of interactivity present in these liminal spaces promotes or impedes player enmeshment with Link, and the effect of that enmeshment on the player’s experience of the narrative
The Niggling Bandersnatch: Tolkien’s Revisionist Tendencies and the Canon of Middle-earth
Get PDFC.S. Lewis famously said of Tolkien in a 1959 letter that “you might as well try to influence a bandersnatch.” He continued by noting that Tolkien had “only two reactions to criticism: either he begins the whole work over again from the beginning or else takes no notice at all.” It’s pretty obvious he had a similar reaction to his own self-criticism – to noticing a loose end, or something that didn’t fit a changed cosmological theory, or a new addition to the legendarium that required a revision to the back-story. His reaction would be to niggle away at a revision or recontextualization, or what we would now call a retcon, in an attempt to create retroactive continuity with the newer narrative or concept, sometimes successfully but perhaps far more often not.We’ll look at Tolkien’s tendency to niggle and revise and reconceive, why he did it, and what it impacts: our understanding 18 of his sub-creative process, how we think about canonicity in the legendarium, how this authorizes (or doesn’t) adaptation and creative re-use by fans and in media, and so on
The Year in Astronomy
Get PDFThis is a slide presentation by Michael Kauper about the developments in Astronomy over the past year, and suggestions of what to watch for in the sky over the next few months, a tradition at Diversicon
Fanning the Flames of Fanfiction: Examining the Usage of Fanfiction Tropes in Rainbow Rowell’s \u3ci\u3eCarry On\u3c/i\u3e
Get PDFIt was not so long ago, in literary history terms, that fanfiction was left to the periphery of methods of fan interaction with their favourite properties. Fanfiction’s status ranged from something to be derided to a crime punishable by lawsuits. However, this is no longer the case, and readers of fanfiction now have a plethora of websites where they can search through works for any tropes that they may want. Nothing highlights this new liminal space between accepted and unaccepted forms of fiction than the publication of Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On. Rowell’s text is an expansion on the fanfiction world hinted at in Rowell’s “New York Times Best Seller” Fangirl. This presentation thus focuses on first highlighting the obvious the similarities between Rowell’s texts and its obvious comparator, the Harry Potter series. These similarities are most immediately visible through the similarities between Simon Snow and Harry Potter, however they run much deeper throughout the text. Following this section, this presentation discusses Carry On’s references to the fanfiction community through its usage of common tropes in the world of fanfiction. Specific tropes that this presentation highlights are “enemies to lovers,” “grumpy and sunshine,” and “forced proximity.” Finally, this presentation will highlight the way that books like Carry On act as premonition of the modern literary liminal review space, Booktok. Specifically, this final section of the presentation focuses on the prevalence of reconstructing fanfiction into published literature and what can be learned about these texts through their use of tropes that were once sequestered to the realm of fanfiction
\u3ci\u3eMonster Midway: An Uninhibited Look at the Glittering World of the Carny\u3c/i\u3e by William Lindsay Gresham
Get PDFWilliam Lindsay Gresham may best be known in the Inklings community for being Joy Davidman’s first husband, but he was also a successful writer. His 1953 study Monster Midway, recently republished by Dunce Books, is an engaging look at American carnivals, with personal details that will interest Inklings scholars
Orpheus and the Harrowing of Hell in the Tale of Beren and Lúthien
No full textCritics have observed that Beren and Lúthien’s tale is a Christian retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The “Harrowing of Hell” tradition is widespread in Italy as attested by the mosaic of San Marco among others, but it is in France that the Ovid Moralized reconnects it to Orpheus who descended into the Underworld to save Eurydice (an already late antique parallel) and therefore attests a happy ending version of the story that can be found in medieval England and also in various classical sources, perhaps even in the original legend of Orpheus. The apocryphal Harrowing is also a recurring motif in the Anglo-Saxon and Middle English religious poetry that Tolkien studied. In short, Tolkien has a wealth of precedents in giving his Orpheus and Eurydice, i.e. Beren and Lúthien, a happy ending
“Hell is only a word. The reality is much, much worse”: Black Holes as Fantasy Gateways to Hell
Get PDFWhile the genre of space horror is generically defined as simply space-based horror, there exist specific tropes that can be used to identify representative works. Among these are: (i) a relatively small ensemble cast, (ii) many of whom die over the course of the story; (iii) a secret corporate/political/military agenda and (iv) physical and psychological stresses due to the arduous process of space travel and related isolation. A subset of space horror adds metaphysical elements, drawing connections to Hell, more specifically a liminal space that Victor Turner terms the “betwixt and between.” As the region around and within the event horizon of a black hole fits this definition (like a classical view of Hell, trapping its victims for all eternity), it suggests that black holes could play an important role in Hell-related space horror. This paper analyses three works of hellish space horror — the much-maligned Disney film The Black Hole (1979), the cult-classic film Event Horizon (1997), and the “Impossible Planet/The Satan’s Pit” arc of new series Doctor Who (2006) — and demonstrates how they are representative of the use of black holes as fantastical gateways to supernatural (or at the very least super-natural) experiences with Hell
Vol. 6 No. 1
Get PDFMythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups
Vol. 14 No. 6
Get PDFMythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups