CALL FOR PAPERS
Mythic Characters and Places Made Real: TV and Film In Situ
An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on Film and Myth

September 26-30, 2012
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
www.filmandhistory.org
Deadline: June 1, 2012

Popular media increasingly are becoming the foundation for “non-mediated” experiences with local, material culture. Now, the representation of certain fictive historical times, people and places on film and TV have led to their commemoration in real places. Fictional settings and characters have become mythic as certain films and TV shows have become depoliticized symbolic inducements with the power to transform the messy complexities of history into desirable but unfulfillable narratives. What does this mean? How are television and film used by the wider public as a resource of collective memory? Why are certain stories selected by civic
boosters for the purposes of place promotion, heritage and tourism production? Why do fans visit these sites and what do they get out of them? Fans of TV and movies much less residents of places that commemorate these media must confront questions of authenticity, popular culture as public culture, and the hyperreal.

This area, comprising multiple panels, will treat all aspects of the relationships between mythic film and television and the real places that are connected to the narratives and characters associated with them.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Vampire Tourism from Transylvania to Forks, WA (Dracula; Twilight)
- Having a real pint in a mythic bar (Coronation Street; Cheers; Northern Exposure)
- Celebrating the Mythos of the final frontier. (Star Trek enshrined in Riverside, IO and Vulcan, AB)
- Mnemonic Myths: The significance of TV land statues. (Happy Days; Bewitched; The Honeymooners; The Bob Newhart Show)
- Take the Tour: Fandom in Mythic NYC. (Seinfeld, Sex and the City)
- The lasting attraction of Sylvester Stallone statues. (Rocky in Philadelphia and Serbia)
- Fandom and Conventions in TV and Films’ mythic places of origin. (The Prisoner in Portmeirion, Wales)
- Festivals in mythic hometowns: Embracing fictional TV and films as local culture. (The Andy Griffith Show in Mount Airy, NC; Superman in Metropolis, IL; Twin Peaks in North Bend, WA)
- Adaptation and Place Promotion: From Literary Tourism to TV and Film based Tourism. (Anne of Green Gables)
- Popular History and Popular Memory: Commemorating TV and Film in the settings that inspired them. (Robocop)
- Real places become mythic: Fictional Film-based tourism. (National Treasure inn Washington, DC; Transformers in Chicago; The Da Vinci Code)
- Mythic characters and mythic places as heritage tourism. (Alice in Wonderland; King of Kensington)
- Fans and Secular Pilgrimages: Visiting Mythic TV and Film Places. (The Sound of Music)
- New Zealand as Middle Earth. (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit)
- The Horror of being associated with Horror Films. (The Amityville Horror, The Blair Witch Project)

Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information,including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012:

Derek S. Foster, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference
“Mythic Characters and Places Made Real: TV and Film In Situ”
Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film
Brock University
Email: dfoster@brocku.ca

CALL FOR PAPERS

“Medieval Magic, Myths, and Legends in Film and Television”

An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth”

September 26-30, 2012
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
www.filmandhistory.org
Deadline: June 1, 2012

The Middle Ages have inspired some of the most enduring myths and legends of Western culture. Whether painted, on screen, in the bright colors of Camelot and The Adventures of Robin Hood or the drab grays and browns of Robin and Marian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, they represent a world in which right and wrong, love and honor, heroism and villainy were clearly defined. Tales of larger-than-life medieval characters – whether adapted from original sources, or set in a wholly imagined middle ages – have been staples of film and television for generations. These medieval-themed narratives, featuring historical figures like Joan of Arc, beloved folk heroes such as Robin Hood, and worlds where dragons and other mythical beasts roam the Earth, have retold and adapted familiar stories of adventure, conquest, magic, and romance, while adding new ones to the ancient tradition.

This area, comprising multiple panels, will treat all aspects of the myth and legend in films and television programs. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

* Arthurian Legends and Myths
* Legendary Heroes Fictional and Factual (Robin Hood, Beowulf, Sigfried, William Wallace, Alexander Nevsky, El Cid, etc.)
* Legendary Saints and Sinners (Joan of Arc, St. Francis, Hildegard of Bingen, Pope Joan, Abelard and Heloise, etc.)
* Norse Gods and Heroes (The Vikings, The Long Ships, Thor)
* Dragons and Other Members of the Medieval Bestiary (Dragonslayer, Gargoyles, How to Train Your Dragon)
* The Imagined Middle Ages (Tolkein, Monty Python, Ladyhawke, The Name of the Rose, The Princess Bride, The Seventh Seal)

Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012:

L. Larson, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference
“Medieval Magic, Myth, and Legend in Film and Television”
Our Lady of the Lake University
Email: llarson@ollusa.edu

From the earliest beginning of cinema, and throughout the history of screen entertainment, filmmakers and television producers have returned to the narratives and images of classical mythology for subject matter and motivation. Numerous films and television series have been based on ancient Greek and Roman mythological and heroic archetypes (The Matrix; The Lion King), while others take classical literary plots and motifs from the great epics and tragedies and adapt them to the screen (A Dream of Passion; O Brother, Where Art Thou?). Some films and television series even set themselves in an imagined “ancient mythological world” full of gods, heroes, monsters and femmes fatales (Xena: Warrior Princess; Hercules: The Legendary Journeys). Why do the classical mythological narratives and images remain such a powerful source of ideas and inspiration for modern filmmakers and television producers?

This area, comprising multiple panels, will treat all aspects of classical mythology in films and television programs. Papers may explore recreations of ancient myths in “real time” (Clash of the Titans; Xena; Hercules) or adaptations of classical myths and narratives in modern settings (Moulin Rouge; Unforgiven). Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

The Hero’s Journey
Features and Creatures of the Underworld
The Katabasis Myth of Descent and Return
Greek Tragic Myths on Screen
The Odyssey and the Nostos-Myth on Film
Pandora and the Myth of the Manufactured Woman
Homer’s Iliad and the American Western
Myths of Transformation and Metamorphoses
Amazons on Screen
The Dionysian Nature of the Cinema
The Orpheus Myth
Olympian Gods in Modern Settings

Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter.

Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012:

Monica S. Cyrino, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference
“MYTHOS: Screening Classical Mythology on Film and Television”
University of New Mexico
Email: pandora@unm.edu

The publisher’s website includes the following description for the volume:

Tim Burton’s films are well known for being complex and emotionally powerful. In this book, Helena Bassil-Morozow employs Jungian and post-Jungian concepts of unconscious mental processes along with film semiotics, analysis of narrative devices and cinematic history, to explore the reworking of myth and fairytale in Burton’s gothic fantasy world.

The book explores the idea that Burton’s lonely, rebellious ‘monstrous’ protagonists roam the earth because they are unable to fit into the normalising tendencies of society and become part of ‘the crowd’. Divided into six chapters the book considers the concept of the archetype in various settings focusing on:

* the child
* the superhero
* the monster
* the genius
* the maniac
* the monstrous society.

Tim Burton: The Monster and the Crowd offers an entirely fresh perspective on Tim Burton’s works. The book is essential reading for students and scholars of film or Jungian psychology, as well as anyone interested in critical issues in contemporary culture. It will also be of great help to those fans of Tim Burton who have been searching for a profound academic analysis of his works.

If the paper from the upcoming conference draws on other perspectives from the book Bassil-Morozow will also include discussion of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus (discussed at TheoFantastique in regards to Roger Aden’s thought on the appeal of the fantastic), Clifford Geertz’s theories of culture, and Victor Turner’s idea of liminality. Burton is a director of great interest for me, so I am excited to find a scholar who has explored this director in some depth.

Christopher Knowles wrote a piece titled “Gods and Geeks in the Endless American Twilight.” It begins with a consideration of the popularity of conventions like Dragon*Con as part of what he labels our “rapidly-expanding Geek Nation.” Knowles notes that this convention includes not only Dungeon & Dragons fans, but also a number of tracks devoted to various facets of the fantastic in pop culture, from Star Wars and Star Trek to Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica. Knowles then considers why this convention, and others like it such as Comic-Con, are so popular.

Knowles suggests that our present cultural miseries fuel our desire to find the divine in fantasy realms, and many times we need look no further than comic books, and the pop culture phenomena they inspire, in order to find these deities. In his book Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes (Weiser Books, 2007), Knowles set forth a case for this which he echoes in the Patheos article: “superheroes are not so much like the heroes of the ancient world as they are like the gods — the savior gods, to be precise.” In his thinking, our movie and television screens portray “a new generation of gods..”.

Knowles also provides thoughts on “geek” culture, and in one of his more interesting insights on this subculture, he suggests that journalists make the mistake of assuming that this is composed primarily of “male, pale, sweaty, akward, antisocial” individuals. Instead, the late 1960s and early 1970s signaled a shift in both the quality of the fantastic in pop culture, as well as the demographics of those who consumed it, moving it beyond a 1950s paradigm which became the stereotype.

In one final observation about this essay, I found it interesting that Knowles sees Avatar as definitive in the context of an easily accessible fantasy. The film’s main character, Jake Sully, is seen as “a Superman in reverse” who comes to suffer with us, just “like the ancient gods of the Mysteries,” says Knowles. Of course Christianity has also presented a suffering god to humanity, and it is interesting to see “New Age,” ancient pagan, Western esotericism, and Christianity providing imaginative fodder for comics and the broader realm of the fantastic in pop culture.

Those interested in learning more about Knowles’s book on comics and their surprising religious sources of inspiration in esoterica can read the Preface to the book here, and the book can be ordered through the TheoFantastique Store here.

Related posts:

“Stan Lee, Comic Fairytales, and Spirituality”

“B.J. Oropeza: Comics, Archetypes, and Superheroes”

“And the Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, or At Least Lead Pop Culture”

“Star Trek Fandom as a Religious Phenomenon”

“Star Trek Conventions as Sacred Pilgrimage”

TheoFantastique: Carl and Tony, thank you for your willingness to discuss your book. I discovered your work on The History Channel while watching Star Wars – The Legacy Revealed. This program focused largely on the mythic aspects of Star Wars, particularly through the interpretive lenses of Joseph Campbell. Why has so much of the exploration of Star Wars been from the perspective of myth?

Carl Silvio: It all goes back to the publication of Andrew Gordon’s seminal article, “Star Wars: A Myth for Our Time,” in 1978. That essay had a tremendous influence on the future of Star Wars scholarship. George Lucas has also claimed that Joseph Campbell’s conception of the monomyth influenced him in the creation of the Star Wars saga. These two factors are probably the most significant reason why Star Wars and mythology/myth criticism have been so strongly associated with each other.

Tony Vinci: Andrew Gordon published his article, “Star Wars: A Myth for our Time,” in 1978. In it, he argues that Star Wars is more than childish entertainment, as many of his contemporaries contended. In order to validate this claim, he utilizes Campbell’s notion of the monomyth to explicate the significance of the film’s plot and characters by pin-pointing step-by-step how Star Wars follows Campbell’s thesis of The Hero with A Thousand Faces. Ultimately, he attempts to position Star Wars as myth. Add this publication to the fact that Lucas himself has been rather open about his interest in Campbell’s monomyth, and I do not find it that surprising that myth criticism has been such a prevalent mode of analyzing Star Wars. What I do find surprising, is that for almost three decades, it has been the dominant mode of analysis applied to the films, despite the dominance of cultural criticism applied to other speculative fiction texts in those decades.

TheoFantastique: But in the face of mythic perspectives on Star Wars your book takes a very different approach as you look at the significance of cultural studies. Can you describe your book’s approach and why you think it is helpful in understanding the significance of Star Wars?

Tony Vinci: The Star Wars films are laden with cultural representations of race, gender, economics, and spirituality; they fetishize technology and fashion; they use the most cutting edge film-making techniques—yet they are presented as simple pieces of entertainment without much social or political commentary. This paradox of a wildly complex matrix of competing representations delivered as a simple commodity is what makes the franchise such a significant cite for cultural criticism. Our hope was to analyze how the films influence and reflect the cultures that created and view them in hopes that we will understand more clearly how they function as pieces of cultural meaning.

Carl Silvio: We have nothing against myth criticism per se. But the analytical work on Star Wars has been so dominated by it that other critical perspectives have been crowded out. All too often, myth criticism becomes a kind of intellectual cul de sac. Let’s set aside for the moment the question of whether or not the monomyth actually exists independently from the perspective of critics bent on finding it everywhere. How many times can we observe and point out how this or that narrative corresponds and conforms to the monomyth template? Moreover, once such a correspondence has been demonstrated, where does that take us beyond affirming over and over again that the monomyth pattern seems to repeat itself in a wide variety of cultural narratives? For me, it’s just so much more interesting to look at Star Wars from other perspectives, to see it as a rich repository of ideology and cultural values.

TheoFantastique: Let’s talk about some of the specifics explored in the book by its various contributors. Tony, in your chapter you discuss the shift in how individualism is treated in the first trilogy versus the latter trilogy of films. Can you sketch some of what you put forward in your chapter?

Tony Vinci: What makes the original trilogy engaging is how it manifests a clear and stable anti-establishmentarian stance through its depictions of political and spiritual figures; however, the prequels subvert all of this progressivism, turning strong revolutionaries into lapdogs of the parties in power, turning the open spiritual exploration of the force into dogmatic religion, and turning spiritual figures into police officers, economic negotiators, and generals. To me, this reflects a disturbing transformation in the culture that created the films: the radical exploration of the late ‘70s gave way to the neo-conservatism of the early part of the new millennium.

TheoFantastique: Carl, in your chapter you touch on the differing ways in which Star Wars engages global capitalism. What is the thrust of your thesis on this subject?

Carl Silvio: Basically, I examine differences between the two Star Wars trilogies, the original and the prequel, in order suggest a parallel between them and the rise and consolidation of global capitalism. I argue that, as part of our larger cultural imaginary, each trilogy to some extent stages and dramatizes the cultural anxieties and ideological contradictions provoked by this social transformation. To be sure, I’m not arguing that a purely causal or deterministic relationship exists between the economic system and the Star Wars films. To some extent, I’m constructing a deliberate parallel between these two phenomenon in order to highlight certain aspects of each of them.

TheoFantastique: John Lyden has a chapter where he touches on how Star Wars taps into the long tradition of American apocalyptic, particularly an apocalyptic determinism in these films. What similarities and differences do you seen in Star Wars‘s apocalyptic as contrasted with other sci-fi franchises such as the Terminator or The Matrix series, for example?

Tony Vinci: I see Star Wars as being a bit different than the others in that what makes it apocalyptically deterministic is the fact of the prequels. Despite the Emperor’s declaration that he “foresees” the future, the original trilogy doesn’t explore that terrain too much, but the moment you have a prequel, the audience knows what is going to happen to this universe and its primary characters. Think Orson Welles’ Othello or Citizen Kane. We begin knowing the end, and all that comes after will never alter the outcome. Though, in the case of Star Wars, what we know is to come is redemption and victory. The other franchises you mention, especially Terminator, seem to work at creating a real sense of doom for the entire world, whereas in Star Wars, the deterministic mood is focused mostly around the Anakin/Vader character or a world that we know is going to be saved. Though, I believe this is ultimately overshadowed by the politics of the prequels, that they darken irreversibly the “triumphs” at the end of Return of the Jedi because we have now seen the old republic, its frailties and hollowness. Surely the New Republic will have many of the same issues.

TheoFantastique: For me one of the more interesting chapters was by Dan North titled “Kill Binks: Why the World Hated Its First Digital Actor.” CGI actors are now fairly common, and of course Avatar may have helped take digital actors to new heights. Why did so many people hate the digital Jar Jar Binks?

Tony Vinci: There are some serious flaws in the prequels. I think Jar Jar became a scapegoat for all of the other issues that people had with the films but couldn’t necessarily articulate. Beyond that, and the obvious, I think North nails it by arguing that we have anxieties about what watching a digital actor means, and that we projected those onto a character that is not only annoying and potentially racially offensive but represents some difficult questions about what it means to be human.

Carl Silvio: North does a great job of arguing that much of the hatred directed at the Binks character had less to do with its overall silliness and more to do with a deeper anxiety felt by the audience regarding the replacement of live actors with digital ones and the pervasiveness of CGI technology in Lucas’s film making in general. I find his argument to be pretty convincing. Ultimately, I don’t think that the CGI technology is the problem, or at least it’s not why so many long time Star Wars fans rejected the films. It’s more a matter of how Lucas used the technology to alter the franchise in ways that fans found troubling. The whole “Han shot first” controversy is a good example of how Lucas used digital technology to perform a kind of cultural vandalism on his own creation. Jar Jar Binks’s status as a virtual, digital actor allows him to become an emblem that represents all the ways that Lucas has used the CGI technology in ways that upset his fans.

TheoFantastique: Carl and Tony, thank you again for making time to discuss your book. I hope it helps others explore the significance of Star Wars as a cultural artifact.

Apparently something of a controversy has arisen as a result of The Legend of Cain, not because of the film itself, but because of the idea that the biblical Cain may be the source of the vampire in folklore. One aspect of the controversy comes from Christians who are up in arms over the idea that the Bible has anything to do with vampires. After his analysis, in his conclusion Laycock writes:

As for the accusations of sacrilege, perhaps we should look at the link between vampires and Cain not as a revision of a biblical story, but a testament to this story’s enduring effect on the Western imagination.

The accusation of sacrilege is interesting. It’s not as if there has not been a fantastic element associated with the early chapters of Genesis. For example, in popular Protestant fundamentalism and evangelicalism there is a belief that the “Nephilim” mentioned in an obscure reference in Genesis 6 are a race of giants produced through a sexual union between human woman and demons. It is difficult to see why this is more palatable than the idea that Cain became a vampire, but perhaps its because this fantastic idea is connected to a figure Protestants often equate with the sinister and the esoteric, and for them this is a connection being made by outsiders rather than one they see within their own religious tradition.

At any rate, I agree with Laycock in this assessment, and hope that Christians will be more cautions before alleging sacrilege in this latest instance of friction with the fantastic in popular culture.

Related posts:

“Joseph Laycock: Vampires Today”

“Joseph Laycock: Vampires and Eclipse”

Folklore around the world reflects mankind’s abiding interest in other-worldly creatures including vampires, werewolves, giants, fairies, and spirit beings. This easy-reading compendium will have a broad appeal among the general public. This book will delight everyone who is fascinated with tales of fairies, mystical beings around the world, and the legends and fairytales that feed our imagination.

Gary returns to discuss mythology and mysterious creatures.

TheoFantastique: Gary, thank you for coming back to discuss another of your research areas. As we consider fantastic creatures from various cultures throughout history, including in the present, how does mythological and folkloric studies help provide important considerations for us?

Gary Varner: Myth and folklore link all of us to a common thread. Our pasts in regards to our specific origins, ethnic roots and cultures may be different but we find many commonalities in our folklore and collective mythology. Because so many legends are almost identical, such as those connected with the Yeti, Bigfoot, and Sasquatch it is also very possible that these creatures did and possibly still do exist.

TheoFantastique: What is the basic thesis of your book Creatures in the Mist?

Gary Varner: I have pulled certain themes together to show that similar stories can be found the world over and throughout time concerning mermaids, sea monsters, gigantic bipeds and the little people or fairy. I am always interested in why the stories are so similar even though the geographic areas may be so far apart. Could it be that the “Hobbit” people of Flores Island may have been the origin for legends about little people? Or were there many such ancient groups around the world which resulted in such a widespread belief in these mystical creatures?

TheoFantastique: Can you share a couple of examples of creatures that appear in various cultures, and the types of similarities that may be found among them across cultures?

Gary Varner: The “wild man” or Bigfoot is perhaps the best known of a creature that is recognizable around the world. From the Pacific Northwest to the forests of Russia, China, Europe Central and South America these creatures are always described in the same fashion: very large bipeds with long fur or hair, tailless and normally dangerous. The little people are also well known around the world. They are normally said to be helpful to humans, fond of music and dancing and sometime can heal. But they have also been described as malicious or mean spirited and tricksters. Many Native American legends about the little people indicate that they live in or near water sources and in rock areas. Other than being very tiny, they are often described as appearing in human form but always with very long hair. Little people have become part of legend from North America, Polynesia, Ireland (of course), Wales, Canada, New Guinea, Russia and South America.

TheoFantastique: Do you see any similarities or relationships between the stories of the Wild Men or Giants of cultures in times past and contemporary stories of Bigfoot or Yeti?

Gary Varner: Yes although the Wild Men legends differ in that they sometimes describe creatures of small and sometimes dwarf stature and even appearing as goblins. Their appearances seem to vary depending on the region. Wild people in the forested areas of Europe were said to be of gigantic proportion while those in the jungles of Belize are only four feet six in height at the maximum. All, however, have hairy bodies, are powerful and often said to be extremely fast. The origin of the “Wild Man” legends seem to date to the Middle Ages and may have described bands of social outcasts, living on the fringe of society.

The other legends such as those about Yeti, Bigfoot etc., are entirely different in that they invariably describe a more primitive type of creature.

Giants, however, have and still do exist to some degree. In Greek mythology giants were primordial deities. Giants are common in Native American lore and while most of them are supernatural creatures there are a few legends that speak of giants as beings from other lands as human as you and I. The Cherokee, for example, have a legend of a party of giants that visited Cherokee villages in the 17^th century. Said to be twice as tall as common men with slanted eyes, they reportedly “lived very far away in the direction in which the sun goes down.” And, of course the Bible tells of a land of giants that were hunted down and slaughtered by the Hebrews. The interesting thing about these legends is how they were told as historical “events” and not as myth.

TheoFantastique: When I was growing up in the 1970s I enjoyed the program In Search of… that explored various paranormal phenomenon, including cryptozoology, and the contemporary program Monster Quest that does the same. Unfortunately, these programs are usually often disappointing in terms of holding out promise of the alleged existence of fantastic creatures that may inform our folklore and myths, but the evidence is usually lacking. Any thoughts on this?

Gary Varner: Yes, I enjoy Monster Quest now too but always know that any actual creature that they are looking for will never likely be found. They are entertaining and I think that they are worthwhile in that they provide “possibilities” that people should consider. We all need the unknown, the possibility that unusual creatures do exist, that the world is more than what we see everyday to keep ourselves grounded. We need to keep myth alive and who knows, previously unknown and thought to be extinct animals continue to be found so why not keep looking for these mystical beings?

TheoFantastique: Gary, thank you again for your book and your research interests that overlap with that of TheoFantastique.

Gary Varner: Thank you. It’s been a pleasure!

Patheos, a website exploring various facets of religion, recently featured an article by Jay Michaelson, a Ph.D. candidate in Jewish thought at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, titled “Demons, Dybbuks, Ghosts, and Golems.” The article provides an introduction to Jewish monsters from the Kabbalah, the Talmud, and folklore, including the female “demonic personality” of Lilith, the dybbuk and the phenomenon of possession with one soul connected to another (as depicted in The Unborn [2009]), the ibbur which is a possessing entity similar to the dybbuk, and the golem (most famously depicted in the expressionist film The Golem [1920]). For those interested in a brief introduction to cross-cultural considerations related to the monstrous this article is worth a read.

TheoFantastique: John and David, thanks for coming back to discuss your latest exploration of myth and science fiction. This is your second exploration of this topic. What did you want to do differently, or perhaps expand upon, with this second foray into science fiction myth?

John Perlich: With each volume we’ve been slowly moving toward more unusual or unorthodox texts (films, programs, artifacts, etc).  Because this project is post-structural in nature, it is important to look for subjects of analysis that can be “under the radar” per se.  Usually the conventional ends up getting lots of acceptance and attention—so we’ve taken some interest in either deconstructing popular texts to illustrate a potential fly-in-the-ointment or analyzing a hidden-gem to reveal the inner beauty.

David Witt: I don’t see this volume being radically different from the first, but it is a little more unique. When the chapter proposals started coming in there were the popular mythic texts like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the NBC TV show Heroes. However, I remember we were especially intrigued with texts like the videogame Second Life and the complexity of evil exhibited in the book and musical Wicked. So, the book just naturally gravitated toward including more unusual subjects.

TheoFantastique: Myth is studied at times in connection with ancient civilizations and religion, but you suggest there is something significant here in understanding the modern period. Can you say a few words about the significance of modern myth in your view, and why science fiction is an important expression of this?

David Whitt: In my chapter I quote French poet and novelist Raymond Queneau who said “One can easily classify all works of fiction as descendants of [Homer's] The Iliad or The Odyssey.” If he is correct then all genres, including science fiction and fantasy, have drawn upon Homer epic mythic poem for inspiration. In this way mythology, and certainly not just Greek mythology, is timeless and continually influential. For example, last week I read Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning “The Road” and was struck by how this post-apocalyptic story is a variation on the hero’s journey. Since being immersed in comparative mythology the past several years as an editor and writer I’ve seen mythic tropes in everything from comedy to drama.

John Perlich: It has been argued by Joseph Campbell himself that there are no new myths but that assertion is often taken out of context. In fact, myths are retold and reinvented—leaving the possibility for new myths (or at the very least a myth/tale/archetype that does not resemble established tales, stories, legends, and lore). You’ll often find that science fiction is a powerful medium for telling new tales while simultaneously challenging existing structures and templates. We’ve hit on this issue in the previous volume from a variety of angles ranging from the cyborg themes (in David’s chapter) to “new” heroes (and heroines). Fantasy and science fiction allow for an expansion (if not a reconfiguration) of old boundaries.

TheoFantastique: I’d like to ask a few questions from a sampling of the chapters by contributors that were of most interest to me. Planet of the Apes is my favorite sci fi film franchise so I was naturally attracted to Richard Besel and Renee Smith Besel’s chapter “Polysemous Myth: Incongruity in the Planet of the Apes“. While I greatly appreciate the body of Tim Burton’s work, I was less than happy with his 2001 reimagining of The Planet of the Apes. The Apes myth did not work as well in the new cultural context of the early 21st century as it did in the late 20th. Besel and Besel suggest that one of the reasons for the decline in popular and critical success in contrast with the original film was its lack of interpretive depth. In what ways have viewers found hermeneutical depth in the original film, and how was this different with Burton’s version?

John Perlich: As you quite accurately pointed out, the milieu surrounding the original film accounted for a tremendous resonance between the audience and the themes in the movie—and Rich and Renee have done a great job articulating this premise. As I read Rich and Renee’s chapter I found myself saddened by the opportunity that was squandered when this film was remade. I don’t want to give away too much of their chapter so I can’t say more.

David Whitt: Burton had the unenviable task of trying to remake a classic film which was a reflection of its time, the socio-cultural tensions of the 1960s. I was certainly intrigued by the idea of remaking Planet of the Apes for the new millennium, but as you said, the themes of race and social conflict just didn’t resonate as well thirty plus years later.

TheoFantastique: Besel and Besel comment on the confusing ending of Burton’s Apes film. As a viewer who has watched it several times in an effort to figure it out, but has still come up empty, can you shed a little light on it? Is this a case of trying to live up to the now iconic ending of the original but which fell short?

David Whitt: I remember walking out of the theater and saying “That ending makes no sense within the context of the film!” Nobody has convinced me otherwise. Clearly, Burton was trying to go for the shock value of the original ending, but came up with one that left the audience scratching their heads.

John Perlich: I don’t have any additional insight on that ending, John—but I cannot confess to spending much time trying to figure it out. It does say something in my opinion that I wasn’t committed to making sense of the text.  Other films, for example Memento, have brought me back repeatedly to solve the puzzle of an unusual ending. I was not equally compelled by Burton’s work.

TheoFantastique: John, your chapter addresses one of the great fantasy films of the last few years in “Rethinking the Monomyth: Pan’s Labyrinth and the Face of a New Hero(ine)”. Can you share a few examples of how Guillermo del Toro has challenged or redefined the hero of myth and fantasy through Ofelia/Princess Moanna as the heroine in a new form of monomyth?

John Perlich: I am so absolutely delighted that you share my admiration for that film! I hope my piece compels every reader to watch del Toro’s work. By his own admission, Campbell’s work in articulating the monomyth often leaves a place of mutedness with regard to the female protagonist. Although Campbell contends that women can also travel the path of the heroic journey, his articulation of that process is vague and not well-defended. This is clear when you read his famous interview with Bill Moyers. Not only is Ofelia a willful and disobedient heroine, her age should preclude her from this epic adventure in many ways. Ofelia, as a girl, confronts challenges that resemble stages in the monomyth—but these stages must be recast as a result of the makeup of del Toro’s protagonist. Again, it is a fantastic film and I encourage your readers to check out both the film and my analysis of this fine work.

David Whitt: John’s chapter is a brilliant and incredibly thorough analysis of Pan’s Labyrinth. I think he could have easily written another twenty pages without even thinking about it.

TheoFantastique: What are the implications of del Toro’s depiction of the heroine for girls and young women looking to contemporary myth as inspiration?

David Whitt: Aside from John’s concern about violence, I think young girls can draw inspiration from Ofelia. In the face of great danger and horror, in both the real world and the fantasy world, she exhibits remarkable bravery and intelligence. What’s not be inspired by?

John Perlich: My concern, as mentioned in the chapter, is that the violence of the film might preclude them from seeing this fine work and thus drawing from both Ofelia’s journey and character for inspiration.

TheoFantastique: Jay Scott Chipman discusses myth and posthumanism in “So Where Do I Go From Here?: Ghost in the Shell and Imagining Cyborg Mythology for the New Millennium”. Why does Japanese culture express a great volume of cyborg mythology through various media, particularly in manga and anime as in Ghost in the Shell?

John Perlich: I’d hate to be stereotypical in a prognosis but it seems to me that each culture might dwell on some archetypal themes as a result of cultural and historical forces. It is well documented that the aftermath of World War II and the birth of the atomic age has had a profound impact on the literature and art produced in Japan. I think the proliferation of cyborg mythology is an extension of this milieu.

David Whitt: I was fortunate to visit Tokyo last spring and witnessed firsthand Japan’s celebration of technology. Certainly John is correct with the claim that the nuclear age had a great impact on the cultural consciousness of the country. However, it’s more than that. Chipman explains how the Japanese have historically embraced technology for centuries, tracing narratives about artificiality back almost 500 years. So, you could argue that appreciating the technology and the merger between humanity and machine is part of Japanese culture.

TheoFantastique: With the continued exploration of cyborg themes in science fiction, in Surrogates, for example, do you see a continuing need for the exploration of this mythic thread in the genre? If so, how might the cyborg myth help us understand ourselves, our increasing interconnection with technology, and the possibility of the posthuman?

David Whitt: I have yet to see Terminator Salvation or James Cameron’s Avatar but their box office popularity seems to suggest a public intrigued with posthuman existence  (or perhaps audiences just like to see things blown up). The merger between technology and humanity is unavoidable, but what we should be concerned about is how this impacts our individuality, and those qualities which make us human. Besides, I believe that everyone already is a cyborg (in one way or another), and welcome any text which continues to explore our inevitable cyborg development.

TheoFantastique: Thank you again for delving again into the area of myth and science fiction. I hope that both books are successful, and that perhaps there might indeed be a future volume to complete a trilogy.