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Scholar Guest of Honor Address
Get PDFSpeech by Scholar Guest of Honor Brian Attebery
Mythcon participants are invited (but not required!) to take part in our opening festivities Saturday morning by wearing costumes or regalia and carrying banners in our procession to the Terrace Rooms in which our Opening Ceremonies and Scholar Guest of Honor Address will be held. Those wishing to take part in the Opening Procession should meet by 8:45 am inside the main hotel lobby
Desert Power: Decolonization of the Fremen Narrative in \u3ci\u3eDune: Part Two\u3c/i\u3e
Get PDFIn Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 2 (2024), being the middle part of a planned film trilogy, the audience receives extensive exposure to the indigenous people of the planet Arrakis, the desert-dwelling Fremen. Compared to the source material, Frank Herbert’s science fiction masterwork Dune (1965), the portrayal of the Fremen people deviates significantly in the film adaptation. This paper will contrast depictions of Fremen belief, culture, and characters between the original novel and the 2024 film, and will argue that the recent adaptation portrays a partially-decolonized narrative of the Fremen people which affords them additional agency and nuance. The primary focus will be on interactions of the Fremen with the prophecies and traditions of the Bene Gesserit religious order, who effected a cultural colonization of the Fremen through their missionary work
Middle West and the Pastoral Ideal in the American Artistic Landscape
Get PDFThe complex and sometimes contradictory origin and use of the term Middle West—an evolving concept especially during the later American Expansionism period (primarily 1880 and after)—impacted the imagination of its writers. Their works view the Middle West as an idyllic place that occupies a central part of their personal and cultural pasts, and as a mediator between East (aged, urban and jaded) and West (wild, youthful, untamed). Middle West rests on yeomanry, an Old-World concept which Jefferson especially admired, embodying the virtues of maturity, wisdom, and kindness: “The pastoral ideal, a haven midway between the corruptions of urban civilization and the dangerous untamed wilderness, has been a symbol, dream, and even definition for America since its discovery” (“The Emergence of Middle West as an American Regional Label” 214). For each artist, a particular place in the “Middle West” landscape invokes a personal nostalgia, while culturally it serves as a receptacle of core values that negotiates between East and West, individualism, and collectivism. This paper discusses the idea of Middle West in exemplary imaginative works: Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919), F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), Walt Disney’s “Mainstreet,” inspired by his childhood in Marceline, Missouri, and Ray Bradbury’s “Greentown,” based on a childhood summer in 1928 in Waukegan, Illinois as recounted in Dandelion Wine (1957). The narrow time period in which these writers were born, along with the impact of the First World War, instills the longing for a prelapsarian Middle West and the pastoral ideal it inhabits in the American cultural landscape, something akin to Tolkien’s Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age, a diminished Eden but a compelling one just the same
Wisdom and Life Lessons in the Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, and David R. Slayton
Get PDFIn keeping with the conference theme Fantasies of the Middle Lands, I will present on the magical use of the imagination, commonplace wisdom, and life lessons to be found in the science fiction and fantasy works of three authors from Middle America whose works span a century of science fiction and fantasy: Edgar Rice Burroughs, (1875-1950) and Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), both from Illinois, and David R. Slayton (in the present), a relatively new author originally from Oklahoma. The works of Burroughs and Bradbury were significant in making me both a reader and a re-reader of books. Their works— especially Burroughs’ “John Carter of Mars,” “At the Earth’s Core,” “Tarzan of the Apes” series, and his stand-alone novels; and Bradbury’s “Green Town,” “Martian Chronicles,” and “Illustrated Man”—influenced me with their everyday wisdom that included valuing the magical powers of the imagination, practicing chivalry, and championing fair play in dealing with others. I will also include a discussion of the works of the contemporary fantasy author David R. Slayton, who extends and updates many of the same themes in his novels through emphasizing diversity and portraying the complexities of life and relationships in his tales of urban and epic fantasy adventure. My presentation will use observations about myths and folk-tale traditions from some of the volumes of the “Collected Works of Joseph Campbell” series as a theoretical backdrop
Two Roads to Hell: Rebirth and Relevance in Musical Adaptations of Katabatic Myth
Get PDFThe paper examines two myth-inspired musicals—The Frogs by Burt Shevelove and Stephen Sondheim and Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell—concerning journeys to the underworld that benefit society. Both musicals undergo adaptation and revision processes that reflect the political and social concerns of the day. The Frogs depicts Dionysus’ journey to Hades to bring back a poet (originally Euripides, now George Bernard Shaw). However, it was not until the 2004 Broadway adaptation that overtly anti-authoritarian messages were added, aimed at the Bush administration. As a “folk opera,” Hadestown retells Orpheus’ descent to the Underworld to rescue Euridice as a commentary on economic disparity and exploitation: the central couple’s poverty justifies Euridice’s attraction to the industrial productivity of Hell. As a full Broadway musical production, their dilemma is given a counterpoint in the decaying marriage of Hades and Persephone, which reflects ongoing climate change. While the former is a comedy and the latter a tragedy, both musicals arrive at the same message of using art to endorse political change and herald endurance in the face of societal complacency and despair
Vol. 17, No. 2 - Whole No. 2
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. 18, No. 3 - Whole No. 10
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. 21, No. 2 - Whole No. 45
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. 21, No. 7 - Whole No. 50
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. 6 No. 4
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