Last week I wrote about my interview with Charles de Lint at the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs. Today, I wrap up my discussion of the conference with some comments on the fantasy canon and the awards ceremony, which have of late been the subject of some controversy. My MA thesis is on fantasy …
Continue reading World Fantasy Convention 2015, Part III: Challenging the Canon
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
Over a decade ago, you might have stumbled across the following headline in the New Zealand Herald: "Transit and the Taniwha" by James Corbett. It discusses--with that characteristic Kiwi sense of dry humour--how a dragon came to be at the center of a Māori protest over the construction of a highway. The BBC said, "Construction …
Continue reading Taniwha Highway: the Phenomenon of Modern Day Dragons
Merry Christmas! From Santa and his "Huldufolk" (I mean "elves").A merry Christmas to all! For Part 2 of my series on J.R.R. Tolkien, I take you to the frozen rocks of the North: to Iceland, the land that inspired so much of Tolkien's Middle Earth. I stumbled upon a fascinating article in today's Montreal Gazette. …
Continue reading What Icelandic Elves can tell us about Christmas and the Environment
Matthew Rettino 