A.I.: Artificial Intelligence – Box Office Disappointment But Philosophical Treat
Like many people, I am a fan of the work of director Steven Spielberg. Whenever I get the chance I enjoy watching his films, and catching various “behind the scenes” programs and interviews where this talented director speaks about his craft. There are a few of his films that I have never seen, but have […]
Celebrating Creativity: Ub Iwerks and the Hand Behind the Mouse
This blog is devoted not only to an analysis of various facets of the fantastic, the imagination, and creativity in popular culture, but also to the sheer enjoyment and celebration of these things. With this in mind I highly recommend a documentary that has aired a couple of times now on the Ovation channel titled […]
J. Gordon Melton Interview on Vampire Mythology
J. Gordon Melton is a respected scholar, author, and lecturer in the area of new religious movements. He is the director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, California, and is responsible for authoring, editing, or contributing to a number of books including the multi-volume Encyclopedia of American Religions (Gale […]
Magic and Fairytales: Reassessing the Hermeneutic
The other day I was waiting in line at the post office and was scanning the walls, bored enough to read the various posters. One of them promoted a new line of stamps that is available. As I looked at the familiar images I was reminded that for some time aspects of the entertainment industry […]
Darkon: Documentary on Fantasy Role Playing Game
At the recent Cornerstone Festival I had the opportunity to facilitate a film discussion in the Flickerings area surrounding a documentary Darkon that is based upon the fantasy role playing (FRP) game of the same name. It wasn’t until I viewed this film that I realized that FRP gaming goes beyond board games and the […]
Dying to Live: a novel of life among the undead
I recently returned from Cornerstone Festival and one of the seminar series that I enjoyed throug the Imaginarium venue was that presented by Kim Paffenroth on the zombie Films of George Romero. Kim is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College in New York, and the author of Gospel of the Living Dead (Baylor […]
Fears Over Speculative Fiction
The Religion Bookline section of Publisher’s Weekly includes the following news item: Fantasy 4 Fiction Tour Highlights Nascent Genre “Four Christian speculative fiction authors from four different publishers are teaming up for the Fantastic 4 Fantasy Fiction Tour. After a kickoff July 9 in Atlanta at the International Christian Retail Show, the writers will visit […]
Occult-Tinged Fiction Revisited
A friend and colleague of mine who is a reader of this blog sent me an email recently with some thoughts in response to my last post on “Occult-Tinged Television.” Since my friend sent this email to me privately in that he is working out his thoughts on this topic, I won’t mention his name, […]
“Occult-Tinged” Television Programming
At the end of May The Wild Hunt Blog included an interesting post on the large number of “occult-tinged” television programs that were the focus of an article in The New York Times. Wildhunt discusses some of these programs: Among the new supernaturally themed shows premiering is “Moonlight” a vampire-themed romantic detective series on CBS, […]
Shinto and Liminality in Anime
Anime, or Japanese animation, is a popular form of entertainment in Japan, and it continues to attract a growing fan base in the United States. But how might American viewers best understand these expressions of Asian culture? Two articles by scholars writing on various anime films for http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/The Journal of Religion and Film (JR&F) provide […]
