The final day of MythCon 46 was Monday August 3rd, during which I only took notes on one presentation: Vicki Ronn on "Graphic King Arthur," that is, the history of King Arthur comic books. Ronn presented a series of comics featuring or starring the mythical king, evaluating each for the quality of its illustrations, story, …
Continue reading MythCon 46: The Arthurian Mythos Part IV: The Conclusion
Sunday 2 August 2015 was the date of my long-awaited presentation on Charles de Lint's multicultural utopia. Although this post will not include a copy of my presentation--that will be for next week, when I will discuss the final day of lectures at MythCon 46--I do include a significant panel involving the inestimable Brian Attebery, one of the key scholars …
Continue reading MythCon 46: The Arthurian Mythos Part III: Attebery, Politics, and Worldviews
Every Friday over the next couple of weeks I will be posting notes that I made during this year's Mythopoeic Conference at the Hotel Elegante in Colorado Springs, CO. I presented a paper there on Charles de Lint and had the occasion to reacquaint myself with the much of the same gang from the last MythCon …
Continue reading MythCon 46: The Arthurian Mythos Part I: On Satyrs, Derrida, and Names of Power
At the beginning of another MythCon, this one in Colorado Springs--where I am now, giving a presentation--it is fitting to review the book of the first MythConer with whom I ever struck up a conversation. This is one of the only cases where I knew the author before I knew he was an author. I found him waiting …
The first of the two legendary panels that happened on Sunday--just before my own presentation, which was the last before the banquet and awards ceremony--was entitled "Fantasy and Faith." Chip Crane moderated, and Carl Hostetter, Sorina Higgins, and Lynn Maudlin were discussing the Inklings. What is the place of faith in the fantasy genre? What …
Continue reading MythCon 45 Day 4: Faith, Myths, and Archetypes
You may know Guy Gavriel Kay as a historical fantasy novelist, author of River of Stars, a book that continues to be nominated for various awards. But did you know that he is also a poet? Beyond this Dark House is that obscure volume of poetry you might have remembered seeing just before the title …
John Dee was Queen Elizabeth I's court astrologer, mathematician, and geographer--and he might have become the first lord of the North American territory we now call Canada. Dee is known as a "Renaissance man" for the breadth of his knowledge and for his tendency towards the occult. On a trip to the Continent, he supposedly …
Every once in a while, two events in your life happen simultaneously and in their juxtaposition, a humorous situation appears in your imagination. I had just finished reading Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry and started a job as a salesman. Anyone familiar with the myth of King Arthur, especially as retold by Kay, and …
Matthew Rettino 