DOC-IN-BOOTS

Fairy Tales Are Weird - Take This Tale About A Twig

2012-01-31T15:36:00.000-08:00

This morning, I was absolutely delighted to read "10 Totally Psychotic Fairy Tales That Hollywood Should Film Next" on io9.

Fairy tales are mad.

Take Basile's "The Myrtle."

A woman desires a child so greatly, she "wouldn't care if it were a branch of myrtle!" She presently gives birth to a twig. She cheerfully plants the twig in a pretty pot and puts it up on the windowsill, watering and pruning it tenderly.

As if that isn't odd enough, a Prince passes by and falls head over heels in love with the twig. He begs and pleads to be given the twig and then scurries away with it to his bedroom where "he hoed and watered it with his own hands." In the middle of the night, he senses something getting into bed with him. It's all soft and lovely. He cosies up to it. However, by morning, his bedmate is gone. This occurs several nights, so, of course, in order to discover who's sharing his bed, he ties the girl's plaits to himself, calls for candles, and discovers that she's both gorgeous and a fairy. They become very happy.

But when the Prince has to go away on a trip, the Prince's spurned "women of vice" come and grab the myrtle, summoning the fairy. Seeing how gorgeous she is, they immediately rip her into little bits and flee. The Prince's servant comes upon the crime scene and hastily tidies up all the blood and flesh and hides it away in the pretty pot, watering it for good measure.

The Prince is devastated to discover he has lost his lover. Fortunately, however, she's regrowing in the pot and seeing him so miserable, she pops right back out and consoles him by telling him she is still alive despite being ripped into little pieces by the women.

The Prince invites the women and the lords of the land to a great feast. He asks them all what punishment would be just for someone who would hurt such an attractive fairy. The women come up with all kinds of colourful responses involving gallows, wheels, pincers and being thrown off cliffs. The Prince puts these punishments into effect and he and the fairy live happily ever after.

(Quotes taken from Nancy Canepa's translation in Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones, 2007: pp 52-60.)

You can't make that stuff up...

Wait.

You can.

2012: Is it the year of the fairy tale?

2012-01-16T20:09:00.000-08:00

Shhhhh... I am working on writing up an article. Honest I am. I am not distracting myself by figuring out whether I can make a trip along the Italian Riveria during the weekend off from teaching in Prato. I am not distracting myself with Golden Globe fashions. No siree.

However, I am wondering if this year is the year of fairy tale. Those of us in Australia have started seeing the channel 7 promotional spots for Once Upon A Time, which is excellent news. Grimm went to cable and I don't have cable.

There are fairy tale films due out soon, including Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Jack and the Beanstalk.

There is a lot of buzz about a cyborg version of Cinderella in Marissa Meyer's Cinder. You can see the prequel short story here on Tor.com.

The trouble with what appears to be a resurgence of fairy tale is that people will expect the trend to end. Admittedly, we still haven't seen the end of vampires and Harry Potter doesn't seem to be melting away into obscurity (although, SNL has an especially funny take on his adult years), and I'd be thrilled if fairy tale keeps getting 'bigger' as the twenty-first century progresses. What I would like to see, though, are new tales and less popular tales emerge from this trend. It's incredible how limited the canon of fairy tale really is. It is time to expand that canon and introduce new generations to Viola, Finette, the Ram and their like.

Why Does Pink Inspire Such Loathing?

2011-12-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

A few items have caught my eye over the last days. A friend and peer, Michelle Smith, has an excellent piece in The Age about the new Lego range for girls. (She blogs about it here.) What I really love about her approach to the topic is that she begins:

"In a 1970s advertisement for Lego, a small girl holds up a free-form construction, made up of a jumble of different types of bricks and figures. She is wearing a blue T-shirt, a pair of jeans and blue sneakers, and her red hair is plaited."

It's very easy to see issues like this one become linear: somewhat along the lines that 'girls have always been commercially segregated from boys and this needs to change.' In fact, if you go back in history, you'll find that there are many, many periods in which boys had long curls and were fitted into dresses for the first few years and, likewise, that pink was the traditional colour for boys until the last century. Yet, there has been an increasingly aggressive move towards 'pink marketing' for girls and it's difficult to ignore.

Now, this is problematic, not simply because I agree - girls don't always want everything in pink and marketing executives shouldn't assume they do. It's lazy, for a start. But it also inspires campaigns like PinkStinks and while I agree with much of the campaign's argument, I still wince at how the colour, intentionally or not, becomes the crux of the outrage, rather than the marketing approach to the colour. I like pink. Pink isn't the problem. It's the way pink is being used in this commercial context that is the problem.

In fact, I think part of the reason pink creates such tension is that it is an assertive colour. I've blogged about this before. You rarely find someone saying 'I hate blue' with the same vehemence. Pink is divisive. Pink doesn't care what you think. Pink has the potential to be revolutionary. (Note my little joke there.)

I worry when the response to marketing for girls is reduced, essentially, to an attempt to stamp out pink and maybe sparkles and princess dresses too (which would be a shame, because you'd miss stuff like this). Inevitably, immediately following this attempt, is a reassertion of the binary by which all that is offered to girls is 'bad'. What is offered to boys is 'good'. See what's happening there?

I confess, as a girl myself, I insisted on wearing long dresses with puffy sleeves and sashes and playing with dolls. My mother made all my dresses to my exacting standards and my best ever Christmas was when she made me a new wardrobe for my dolls, mostly with scraps from my pretty dresses (they were often in blue, incidentally, and as you can see, I didn't really pay attention to marketing and didn't even know Barbie dolls existed). But before you judge me, I will add that all my friends were boys. I taught the boys how to skip and behave properly at tea parties. I played outdoors with them, teaching them how to chase dragons and hop over alligator swamps. (Yes, I was pretty assertive, too.) It didn't occur to me until the second year of school that I was 'supposed to' play with girls. That is still one of my saddest days ever and I've never entirely gotten over the heartbreak. (Edited to add: That wasn't actually intended as a pointless personal ramble. The point I wanted to illustrate is that each girl's experience is unique, being girly doesn't necessarily mean you lack assertiveness, and that girls and boys can play at a whole range of games irrespective of supposed gender assignations.)

So I watch these debates with some concern. I particularly worry when a voice pops up asking about the boys and whether it isn't also sad that they have a restricted range of toys marketed to them, a range that doesn't include little stoves and mops, and inevitably someone takes that person to task, 'because boys are privileged.' They're not privileged if they can't easily go into the toy shop and ask for pink fairy wings or a plastic saucepan! Patriarchy is bad for girls and boys. We're not going to get rid of the gender binary and create gender equality if we simply insist all girls should wear jeans and play with trucks. We're not going to get rid of the gender binary and create gender equality by outlawing pink. It's rather like saying it's anti-feminist to make cupcakes. And often, it's not what is being said, but how people are interpreting it.

This isn't what thoughtful, open-minded people like Michelle Smith are saying, but just look at the comments to some of these pieces and you see these extremes come into play.

Mind, I also got a little frustrated at a piece in The Guardian on comic books and women by Ben Quinn. Here's a little snippet:

"'There is a certain sensitivity that you find in women's art that just does not appear in a lot of guys' work,' says James Pearson, who edited the anthology, which follows the story of escaped slaves taking refuge in a swamp."

Oh no, I thought, sighing a little. It's not so bad, but I always feel unhappy when emotions or creativity become gendered. We do need to see more women artists and writers in comics, but they don't necessarily have to produce 'feminine' content, whatever that is. Can one truly tell if an artist is male or female? We used to debate in the unit, 'Writing Women,' whether one could tell if the author was male or female and if it even mattered. A student memorably told us about a friend who insisted he couldn't abide women writers. She smirked. He had a poster of George Elliot on his wall.

Finally, it was incredibly soppy, but I really loved this year's Doctor Who Christmas special. As I noted to some friends - spoiler alert - I especially enjoyed watching a woman carry an entire forest in her head without exploding, without dying, and without having to have the Doctor take the burden because she wasn't strong enough. Those who have watched previous series might know what I mean.

On Holiday

2011-12-16T16:07:00.000-08:00

Ah, I love the holiday season. If only for the excuse to watch Muppets doing Christmas carols, like this. (Yes, Animal is my favourite Muppet.)

I'll be away from all things academic for a couple of weeks, although I'm sure I'll still be reading fairy tales and thinking about glass slippers. Academics are never quite on holiday.

I did see the double bill of Tom Stoppard and Neil Gaiman at the Wheeler Centre event last night. It was brilliant. I won't do a blow by blow account, but I did have one 'can I just duck under the chair?' moment when someone asked Gaiman how he felt about academic critique and his books being taught. I know most authors don't really like their books being taught and I do completely understand that. If I had a book, I'm almost certain I wouldn't like it being taught.

It's true that many students are turned off books by having to 'study' them. I was one such student. Although I did discover a love of Andrew Marvell through high school English, I also came to the conclusion I really hated The Catcher in the Rye. I regularly hear students talk about the books that school and university have ruined for them.

It's scary being a teacher of English Literature. You want students to love the books you teach, but you know that can't always happen. After all, even if you recommend a book to a friend, there's no guarantee they'll love it. Still, you sort of have to study books in English Literature, don't you? And although authors often say they prefer people to find their books 'naturally,' I think schools and universities can be places where you can discover authors 'naturally,' so to speak.

Happily, I've heard from many students who have discovered authors through my classes and have become great fans, going on to read all the authors' books. I have heard from students who had difficulty wrestling copies of their class texts back from a parent or partner in order to study for the test or write their essay. I have even had the occasional email about how a student stayed up all night reading a book and how the book made them happy (incidentally, that was, at least on one occasion, Gaiman's Stardust). So while I know that I have inevitably ruined books for some students, I know other students have discovered new books to love through my classes. That makes me feel a bit better about the whole thing.

Last night did, however, make me stop and reflect upon how we, as teachers and academics, can work to better overcome the stigma of ruining books for our students. I don't have a ready response yet, but I will be thinking about it further... after the holiday.

Craft and the Academic

2011-12-05T15:58:00.000-08:00

The other day, a friend and I were discussing the challenges of supervising PhD students. The upshot of our discussion was my remark that people didn't have to do PhDs: writing a thesis is a lifestyle, not simply an assignment. (Incidentally, I think those are the best words of wisdom I can give anyone considering the PhD route.)

My friend agreed and pointed out a C. Wright Mills piece, "On Intellectual Craftsmanship," which can be found in the appendix of The Sociological Imagination (1959). Mills tells us: "It is best to begin, I think, by reminding you, the beginning student, that the most admirable thinkers within the scholarly community you have chosen to join do not split their work from their lives. They seem to take both too seriously to allow such dissociation, and they want to use each for the enrichment of the other. [...] Scholarship is a choice of how to live as well as a choice of career; whether he knows it or not, the intellectual workman forms his own self as he works toward the perfection of his craft; to realize his own potentialities, and any opportunities that come his way, he constructs a character which has as its core the qualities of the good workman" (195).

This is what I've been trying to get it in my own erratic way. Being an academic is not simply about sitting at a computer for a designated number of hours writing an article or spending an afternoon reading until the book in question is covered in post-it notes or marking a 10 foot high stack of undergraduate essays. To really succeed academically, it has to be about the craft. The academic wants to create, to learn, to improve and innovate.

This is something I want to bring more and more into the classroom. To make undergraduate life at university less about assignments, grades and playing the system and more about a lifestyle. I'm always frustrated that so much of our teaching and student-contact has to be geared towards final grades and major and minor structures. I once overheard two students on the bus complaining because they'd had a couple of lectures on a topic that wasn't covered in the exam. "What was the point of that?" asked one. I barely resisted turning around to say, "Learning."

I also have a soft spot for Mills since he called himself a Wobbly. Yes, a Wobbly. "'I am a Wobbly.' I mean this spiritually and politically [...] I take Wobbly to mean one thing: the opposite of bureaucrat" (Letters and Autobiographical Writings, 2000: 252).

I aspire to be a Wobbly.

Incidentally, in terms of craft, I've been reading Jane Austen Knits. While there is little evidence of Jane's own knitting, her mother could be easily absorbed in the knitting of gloves and socks, which makes me like her all the more. I like the combination of literature, history and knitting that has gone into each of the patterns included in the magazine. For a little taste, here's a link to a blog post by the designer, Sharon Fuller, of 'Picturesque Cape.'

Useful for Authors... and readers too

2011-12-01T16:04:00.000-08:00

Just before I get into the real matter of this post, recently I discovered fantasy/fairy tale magazines. I perhaps shouldn't say 'discovered'. I knew they were around. I hadn't really engaged with them, though. That's changed now that I have an iPad. For some reason - possibly the ability to flick through many magazines without burying myself under them - reading the magazines on the iPad is much more satisfying and I've become a great fan. My current favourite is Fantasy Magazine. The stories are excellent, with contributors like Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, and the cover artwork is rich. See, for instance, the cover of the July 2011 issue.

I've also been delighted to see that Dark Horse is releasing Buffy and Hellboy comics for reading on iPads. Hardcopy magazines and comics have been expensive in Australia. Storage rapidly becomes an issue. Digital subscriptions and copies overcome these problems and make the material readily available. Albeit, these are advantages only if you have a digital device to read the material. I'm not advocating the iPad, incidentally, but it's the device I went with and it's been handy.

The matter of this post, ostensibly, is useful advice for authors (or hopeful authors) and their readers. Neil Gaiman, a great supporter of audio books, has just blogged a post that will hopefully spread far and wide. In "Audiobooks: A Cautionary Tale," he provides advice on making the most of your audio rights. With audiobooks becoming ever more viable and popular thanks to downloadable formats, this is rapidly becoming an significant aspect of a writer's work. Gaiman writes:

I think what I want to say mostly is, if you are an author, Get Involved in Your Audiobooks Early. Get your agent involved and interested. Talk about them at contract stage. Find out if you're selling the rights, and if you are selling them then find out what control you have or whether you are going to be consulted or not about who the narrator is and how the audiobook is done.

I think the most fun I had with an audio book was sitting with a group of friends one night listening to a Doctor Who story. We were traveling and decided to have an early night 'in'. Since we were on the road, this was a B&B. We had a supply of edible goodies from M&S and sprawled happily about the room while I logged into iTunes. A few of us fell asleep before the end, but thankfully, no one who snored over the narration. There is a communal aspect to the audio book that is doubly appealing to me. Joining in as you all gasp and giggle is entertaining in itself.

There is also an excellent post on Amazon reviews from Anne R. Allen's blog. With the bookstore in increasing trouble, we're more reliant on reader reviews and recommendations through online bookstores like, of course, Amazon. I usually flick through the reviews before buying. They don't always persuade or dissuade me, but they do matter. I appreciate the reviews, in particular, that outline the content in more detail than the publisher's blurb (I wish publishers would catch up with the realities of today's book buying practices and provide good, concrete information on the contents). Allen's post gives pause for thought, though, on how much power the buying public now holds over the author. I encourage everyone to read the post and think about reviewing books on Amazon. We have more power now to substantially support writers. It's time to use this power wisely.

First Impressions

2011-11-15T17:07:00.000-08:00

Just saw the trailer for Mirror Mirror!. I may be having a Darcy-Elizabeth moment and I have only seen the trailers, but I think I like this film better than Snow White and the Huntsman.

It does look quite bonkers. It does look cheesy. This is probably why I like it better. It's not taking itself seriously.

Although I have to admit, I can't wait for the time when heroines will rescue the Prince without the need to point out that old chestnut about princes generally rescuing heroines. After all, quite a few heroines have been out rescuing their princes. This is not a bad thing and it is becoming rather common, thank goodness. Maybe soon we can drop the idea that it's unusual?

Both Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror Mirror!, however, focus on the Queen as an aging woman. Note the underlying assumption in both that because she is getting older, she is no longer as beautiful (or, judging by her corsets in the case of Julia Roberts' Queen, as slim). Enter the younger beauty. Beauty and youth are seen to coexist. That's the crux of the problem. Fairy tale has an apparent long history of issues with maturing women (see Basile's 'The Old Woman Who Was Skinned'). Yet, many fairy tales aren't at all concerned about a woman who happens to be getting wrinkles. I'd far rather see more work on overturning this old chestnut than the damsel in distress trope. Let's see more older heroines who are regarded as great beauties!

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with my personal age... I swear.

Fairy tales all over our screens, big and small

2011-11-11T02:09:00.000-08:00

I just saw the trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman today. It's a touch The Lord of the Rings, in fact. It's epic. There are battles. Snow White is in armour. I'm totally overlooking that she's also played Bella... well, almost. However, the wicked Queen does recite the essential 'mirror, mirror on the wall' rhyme, which is a good thing.

Meanwhile, i09 has been recapping Once Upon A Time to great effect. I love that the show is pitting Snow White against a bunch of bridge trolls (brilliantly headlined "Once Upon a Time trolls Snow White" by i09). It does indeed look cheesy. I like cheesy. Fairy tales should be cheesy and fun. Fairy tales should never take themselves too seriously. That might be just me. Yet, I don't think so.

I was actually just working with L'Héritier's "The Discreet Princess, or The Adventures of Finette." Now, this is a fairy tale that needs to be filmed! The villainous Rich-Craft tries to seduce our clever heroine...

"However, he found Finette armed with a large hammer, which had been accidentally left in a wardrobe in her room. Her face was red with emotion, and her eyes sparkled with rage, making her appear even more enchanting and beautiful to Rich-Craft. He would have cast himself at her feet, but as she retreated, she said boldly, 'Prince, if you approach me, I'll split your skull with this hammer.'"

The villain persists, but "Rich-Craft was not very courageous, and as he watched the large hammer, which she played with like a fan, he consented and retired to give her some time to pray."(Quotes taken from Jack Zipes' Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic French Fairy Tales)

Seriously, who would love to see Finette on the big screen?

It's a shame L'Héritier's other tales aren't readily available, particularly in English. She is the niece of Perrault and her tales are more complex, riveting and energetic. While many have speculated that she followed the example of her uncle, I suspect it really was the other way around. She has more in common with D'Aulnoy and Bernard, for instance, than Perrault.

A New Unit: Roots of Fantasy

2011-11-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

In 2012, Patrick Spedding, Peter Groves and myself are undertaking 'Roots of Fantasy.' I'd been teaching 'Fantasy Narratives: An Introduction' in first year, but it never felt like a comfortable fit. Plus, there was a rich heritage of fantasy literature I couldn't cover.

This unit is a dream come true!

It's the first outing, so everything will be new and untried, but I've just firmed on my texts. I'm tackling the nineteenth century, basically. I'll be looking at Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Rossetti's Goblin Market, Morris's The Well at the World's End and Dunsany's The Book of Wonder. [UPDATE: Okay, that just changed. I'd firmed, the timetable hadn't, which has involved some renewed jiggling of texts. Decisions, decisions...]

I just wish there were in print editions of the Kelmscott Press The Well at the World's End.

Wouldn't that be a beautiful text to study from? One of the reasons I really want to include Morris is that I love his connection to the arts and craft movement and his work as a designer is truly remarkable and beautiful. This gives me an excuse to explore that a bit more!

i09 is also doing a series that 'backdates' the Hugo Awards: The Victorian Hugos. It's been pretty fantastic so far and is a great catch-up if you're looking for older fantasy and speculative works. They've just listed 1886. Spoiler alert, so to speak, but they went with Haggard's She as the winner:

"She would have won the 1886 Hugo, but Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was the more deserving of the two. She is a great read, vivid, memorable, and packed with a surprising amount of Haggard's fin-de-siecle pessimism, but there's a reason that Jekyll and Hyde is in the literary canon and She is not. Jekyll and Hyde is better written and more complex symbolically and psychologically. She is good fun; Jekyll and Hyde is good literature."

You know, I think I'd still back She? I just didn't like Jekyll and Hyde as much. And I always resist the rating of literature based on 'better written' and 'more complex'. Literature should be as much about good storytelling and Haggard is a brilliant storyteller of his time.

Not that I'm saying good literature shouldn't be well written... it's just that I've read some awful stories that were very well written...

Some fairy tale related, shameless self-promotion

2011-10-27T16:46:00.001-07:00

Two quick things.

I'm sort of on iTunes now

As you might know, I have a fairy tale in The Voyage: Journeys in Creative Writing (Monash-Warwick Research Initiative 2010/2011). It's called 'The Cat Swindle' and here's a little snippet:

" I turned and peered through the cheap glass window, streaked and smeared with grime. The shop’s display featured tiny slippers in rainbow shades of silk. They hung from a stolen tree branch by their ribbons. Arranged below the slippers, high heeled shoes of delicately tinted leather and shiny stiletto boots with laces and folded cuffs. Such amazing shoes for such a shabby shop, I thought. The Cat rose to her hind legs and rested her forepaws upon the window, leaving more smudges, and her excited breath misted the glass."

Here, too, are further links available now for downloading the anthology. There are also links to performances of other stories in the book.

Download Links

Silkworms Ink (Epub/Mobi/Pdf)

www.silkwormsink.com

Barnes & Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-voyage-silkworms-ink-anthologies/1105810438

Apple

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-v oyage-edited-by-chandani/id465269964?mt=11

Sony

http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/silk worms-ink-anthologies/the-voyage-edited-by-chandani-lokuge-david-morley/_/R-400000000000000502054

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005S0VJSO

Video Links

The Voyage: David Morley and Chandani Lokuge Introduction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-s3er1KIt8&feature=related

Professor Ed Byrne reading 'Airport delay':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M4Mvz xqLSc

Dr Chandani Lokuge reading 'Aubonne, Spring Day'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqMaboPhsiE&feature=related

Jennifer Strauss reading 'Driving to Saturday's Rally for Refugees'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5iYFTgGFr0&feature=related

Dr Maryrose Casey reading 'Hanging Around'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEqZN2hZnAk&feature=related

Professor David Morley reading 'Goldcrests' and 'You were broken'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hooxe0 uBAXk&feature=related

I'll be teaching fairy tales in Tuscany again in 2012

I'll be back at Prato in 2012. We just had the first information session on Wednesday. I showed a PowerPoint slide of my 'wall of gelati' as enticement. It wasn't till afterwards that I got to thinking... some students might have been wondering why I took photos of every gelato I bought. Simple reason? A friend, upon receiving a tweeted photo of the gelato I was eating, sighed 'I suppose you're going to send me photos of every gelato you have?' She might have known I would. It was funny. And hence, I have images of most of the gelati I've eaten in Italy in 2011. There, that doesn't sound nearly as obsessive as it may have looked!

I am looking forward to a second run at Fairy Tale in Italy. The first time around, I was new to the programme and learned a great deal about expectations and the peculiar circumstances of intensive teaching. This time around, I plan to take full advantage of all that experience.

And just a final note...

In our fairy tale reading group meeting this week, Bel and I mentioned Once Upon A Time, the new ABC show that has scored good ratings with its first episode. It does look like great fun! There's a recap on i09. I know it was very sad, but seeing Snow White try to kiss Prince Charming back to life? Marvelous. I also love the idea that our reality, so to speak, is 'horrible' in the words of the wicked stepmother. Although, I'm not 100% sure she's the stepmother here... I really need to see the show!

Incidentally, if you are interested in joining the fairy tale reading group or would like to know more about the reading groups I'm part of, just drop me a line. In fact, I may blog about them next.

As You Wish

2011-10-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

I just had a few days off. For the first time in a long while, I officially called this 'a holiday.' I also remained off-line. It was wonderful.

I spent some time with family and with the old, dead relatives. During this time, I discovered that I'm descended from Morgensterns. My squeal of delight completely baffled my grandfather, who glanced over the gravestones, trying to fathom why his granddaughter was executing a happy skip in a most inappropriate place (don't worry, everyone there had passed away a long, long time ago). Yes, if you know me, you know that The Princess Bride is one of my all-time favourite novels and that it is 'abridged' from S. Morgenstern's novel. That I have Morgensterns in my family tree thrills me.

When I returned, I found in the comment to the last post the link to a Princess Bride cast reunion.

That seemed to be serendipity. I think I need to watch the film again!

See ThinkGeek

P.S. I'm also thinking of putting The Princess Bride on the Fairy Tale Traditions curriculum. I'd been teaching it in Fantasy Narratives, but I do think it'll work better in Fairy Tale Traditions.

Knitting and Literature

2011-10-04T04:12:00.001-07:00

This wouldn't be the first time I've blogged about knitting with a literary theme. It probably won't be the last. And I am still thinking about that article I'd like to write on the topic.

However, today a book arrived on my porch and I thought I'd quickly share it.

Being a great Austen fan, I couldn't go by this, even though my crochet skills are rather... wonky. The cover blouse is called - brilliantly, I add - "Eat Your Heart Out Willoughby." I'm not quite so sure about the "Dreaming of Mr Knightley Pajama Set." The styles aren't always entirely practical, but there's also some good cushions and rugs for the less adventurous, all with a theme drawn from Austen and Regency fashions.

A student once presented me with the volume below as a thank you after she finished one of her degrees. It was a wonderful surprise.

There are a range of books out for more contemporary literature too. I learned how to knit mittens from Charmed Knits. It's a great source for basic patterns, actually.

Lecture Writing

2011-09-28T17:55:00.000-07:00

Just finishing off my lecture on China Miéville's The City & The City. It's a brand new lecture for the new first year unit, 'Reading the City'.

One of the reasons I've been really excited to give this lecture is that it opens up the debate about how genre fiction can operate in terms of tearing down, rather than maintaining genre distinctions. Miéville's work, which to an extent wears its intellectualism on its sleeve, is a great example for looking at the literary nature of genre fiction, thus voiding the particularly stubborn distinction between genre and 'literary' fiction. All fiction belongs to a range of genres - it's just that we don't always recognise it.

But one thing keeps nagging at me as I work on the lecture. Is The City & The City good fantasy? Of course, it's not simply a fantasy novel, but if one were to evaluate it as fantasy, would it work? I'm still in two minds. So much of the construction of the two (maybe three) cities works effectively in terms of fantasy, but now and then, a little doubt creeps in and I think this is in part because of the nature of the noir detective story and the political 'isms' that really drive the novel. The general populations are somewhat distanced and generalised so that although there are tantalizing glimpses into the day-to-day lives of Besz and Ul Qoman, the implications of the fantastic in the day to day aren't quite realised.

However, it would certainly be unfair to judge the novel purely as fantasy. There is more than one genre to The City & The City!

Of course, as one's writing, one sometimes needs a quick break and sustenance. I just discovered these no-bake, oatmeal and chocolate cookies and they are brilliant for lecture-writing energy. Just in case you happen to be writing a lecture any time soon.

1001 Nights

2011-09-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

I've just pre-ordered Marina Warner's book, Stranger Magic. This is a book I've been quite excited about for some time. I heard Warner read from her manuscript at the Fairy Tale After Angela Carter Conference a couple of years ago and the more I research fairy tale, the more I find myself running into the 1001 Nights. So I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a proper edition of the tales while I was preordering Stranger Magic.

Don't be surprised if they pop up on next year's Fairy Tale Traditions curriculum.

More Cold Comfort

2011-08-30T20:40:00.001-07:00

One of my favourite novels is Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. It's clever, witty, but never cruel. The heroine is forthright and wise. There's little not to love in the novel. The film adaptation is also excellent.

Quote: "It's bad to be dewy-eyed around smart people, but you can always secretly despise them."

I've been so excited seeing Gibbons' other novels being re-released by Vintage Classics (see an article about it here). I've already devoured Nightingale Wood, which is a brilliant twist on Cinderella, complete with cheap silver dancing slippers. I'm now working through Starlight, which is a surprisingly gentle, wry novel about being old.

And, incidentally, you can catch a little snatch of my own fiction in The Voyage, which is available as a free - yes free! - e-Book (just click that link). Here's the blurb for the book:

The Voyage is an innovative new anthology of writing by staff and postgraduates from both Monash in Australia and Warwick in England. It includes, poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, drama and most other forms of creativity you might imagine.

It also includes a fairy tale.

It actually came upon me as a surprise. I was looking through my google search results for D'Aulnoy and my name came up!

Exhausted, but happy

2011-08-13T03:37:00.001-07:00

Tights & Tiaras is over. Well, apart from a few post conference thank yous and chores. A very weary, but brilliant team of conference organisers have all been dispatched to their homes.

We had a fantastic time. The presenters were great, the discussion lively, and everyone incredibly friendly and supportive. It's such a pleasure to run an event where the participants are enthusiastic and good natured. I dare not single out any particular panel or paper, because I enjoyed everything I had a chance to sit in on. We even managed to Skype one presenter in from the US - it didn't go horribly wrong!

We were surprised by the media interest. No, that wasn't me in The Age. It may have been a couple of other members of the team, though. We had people on drive time radio, Karen Healey, our keynote speaker, did a spot on The Book Show, and we have some more media coming up. It appears people are interested in female superheroes. This can only be a good thing!

Just in case you forgot!

2011-08-02T22:21:00.000-07:00

It's next week! Slightly nervous now!

A Quick, Jetlagged Wave

2011-07-30T22:39:00.001-07:00

There are definite perks to teaching on an Italian campus. Above is one of them. And if I'd had the sense to jot down my favourite gelato shop, I would, of course, share it with you. But I've forgotten. I'll have to track it down for later.

The experience was fantastic and I hope the students had just as wonderful a time as I had... even though they had to put up with a voiceless teacher for at least two classes. Yes, I lost my voice. So we proceeded in the literary tradition of the fairy tale, courtesy of word processing and a projector.

I'm working through the grading today and getting ready to start the semester's classes tomorrow. Hopefully, the jetlag excuse will hold for a few more days, particularly since I combined it with a cold caught on the flight back.

Telling Tales

2011-07-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

One of my past students, Nina, has an excellent online magazine, Typesetgroup. She recently asked if I'd like to be interviewed. Yes! The interview is up here. She also just posted a great blog about gathering around a fire and telling tales. It made me think of my secret wish. I'd love to stage a fairy tale boot camp - riding through some mountains, telling fairy tales around a camp fire. A friend and I went riding in Paradise (New Zealand's South Island) last year. It was, yes, a Lord of the Rings ride and she even snatched one of the few horses still working who had appeared in the films. I got the horse who apparently liked to sit in the middle of a bush and scratch his stomach. Thankfully, there's no photographic evidence of the hilarity that ensued. While we rode, we talked about what a great experience this would be for people interested in fantasy and fairy tale. Of course, I suspect the liability issues would do my head in.

But just imagine a horse trek through the Loire Valley, learning about the French fairy tales? I may be getting carried away!

Okay, maybe one day.

I do think it's important not to see literature as a sedentary thing, though, but as something bound up in living and making and creating. As my students know, I happily encourage knitting and needlework etc in the classroom. I respect those who see this as a distraction, but for myself, I know I pay more attention when I have something to do with my hands. I suspect this is why we see so many Mother Gooses at their spinning wheels. Often reading, telling or listening to a tale as your hands work, you discover new nuances that you wouldn't have discovered had you sat in your chair simply reading. Rhythms change.

It's much like telling or listening to a tale. The pace changes. Your attention is taken up in a different way. If you're lucky, you get to hear an author tell their tale and you learn how it sounded in their heads. Even listening to people generally telling tales about their life experience - it was a treat listening to Stephen Fry stand on stage and just tell us, the audience, about things that had happened to him and stuff that mattered to him. These are things that make life good, that create new resonances that we can draw upon to enjoy and understand our experience.

Pottermore?

2011-07-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

“If you want custom fit shoes, you’ll need to wait till the elves are up.”

I've just 'done and dusted' a fairy tale that has been sent off to editors. We'll see. I've resolved this year to be more open about the fact that I do write. Although I don't aim to be a creative writing academic and I do believe that critical writing is creative too, I enjoy writing fiction and suspect a good majority of English Lit. academics have manuscripts tucked away or published. I've been writing 'seriously' since I was eleven and realised people could do something like write books. Of course, I'd read books before then - many books. I just hadn't thought of books as being authored by people who did that kind of thing for a living. The realisation was somewhat life changing and I then took writing seriously. It became important. It became something I did. And while I haven't always been anxious to publish, I don't know where I'd be if I wasn't walking around without at least a story or two buzzing in my head.

That could be why I look a little distracted at times.

For the first time today I also hopped over to look at Pottermore. I watched the video. The video is amazing - it uses animated book papercuts, which are among my favourite things in the world. The concept itself is intriguing and embraces the ideals of transmedia storytelling, although under the control of Rowling as author. Some are less than enthused and see it as another example of the forces of commercialisation wielded by Harry Potter. It does permit the author control over the interaction of readers with the text. Yet, it could indeed be where fiction will go. Other authors, like Jasper Fforde and PJ Haarsma, also have sites that encourage interaction and provide digital material for readers.

I also take my hat off to Rowling that, however it happened, she maintained the digital rights to her work. Those rights are valuable today.

Publishers and Academics Today

2011-06-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

I was reading a great article by Cory Doctorow in The Guardian: "Publishers and the internet: a changing role?" As readers of the blog will know, I'm really invested in the changing role of publishers in the industry. I like that Doctorow refers to this as "a weird and wonderful thing." I'm actually quite optimistic about the new range of 'publishers.' This is not to dismiss all publishing houses - there are many excellent editors out there who still know how to find and develop talent, but there are problems unique to today's market. Let's not kid ourselves that it's all about good storytelling and writing. Likewise, the proliferation of online 'publishers' doesn't guarantee that good work will always find its audience or that artists will be better off. Artists and authors are increasingly having to learn new tricks and trades to survive.

One of the commenters, UnpublishedWriter, noted: "I guess it also says a lot that this is in the 'Technology' Section rather than 'Books.'" Indeed. The ability to be tech savvy is becoming as important as being able to write well.

But what about English Lit. academics? Is our role changing too? Yes. Of course, academics are always debating the state of the discipline, so it's nothing new that our role is under scrutiny today. The question that really interested me after reading Doctorow's piece is whether our role as 'gatekeepers' is changing too. I've heard many colleagues talking about how we have a great range of truly wonderful literature to draw upon. Yet, universities all over the world seem to teach from the same selection of novels. I'm as culpable as anyone! What will we do as published work spreads across the online environment? As increasingly obscure works are unearthed and made accessible thanks to sites like Google Books? Will we increase the range of literature we look at now that more literature is readily available?

I'll need a few more cups of coffee before I start positing answers, but in the meantime, I thought I'd quickly share one of my own favourite artists who has taken advantage of the potential in the environment, Marian Call. Yes, it's music, but there's lyrics, and to me, that counts! Plus, there's a very cool use of a typewriter.

Cupcakes and the Academic Profile

2011-06-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

A friend and colleague of mine pointed me in the direction of this blog post by Dr Inger Mewburn on 'The Thesis Whisperer'. I immediately passed the link on to my postgrads. I think it's important for academics to think about how we're presented in the online environment. As I've said before on the blog, part of my motivation for blogging is the ability to present a picture of myself that I can control - at least to a certain degree! I've looked up other academics in the past and it's very difficult to find any trace of them. On the other hand, I've looked up academics and discovered that they also make jewelery, write stories or bake bread. Such revelations are always a bit of a risk. There are bound to be some people who scorn such hobbies being revealed. How can you take an academic seriously who makes necklaces? My response would be 'how could you not?' It's a relief to discover that they have a life outside books. There's no need to talk about such hobbies in lectures or classes - unless relevant - but I don't see how such activities can diminish academic profiles.

And, as Dr Mewburn writes, "who wouldn’t want to hire someone who guarantees cupcakes at every staff meeting?"

Our reading group used to regularly share muffins and cakes. It's happened less often of late and I'm a little sad about that. I might have to do something about it. Although, most of my baking lately has been confined to dog biscuits...

Don't Mess with Fairies

2011-06-29T19:16:00.001-07:00

The relation between fairies and fairy tales is fraught. Many fairy tales don't feature fairies. Many tales about fairies more aptly conform to folklore, myth, urban legend or just simply superstition, not fairy tales.

Likewise, there are two distinct, well known arcs to fairy lore. There is the older lore of terrifying, cunning, duplicitous fairies. There is, too, a sentimental lore that gives us romantic, sweet fairies. The latter largely arises from a Victorian/Edwardian sensibility. The two arcs are increasingly intermingled in contemporary tales about fairies.

I tend to distinguish between tales about fairies and fairy tales. The term, fairy tale, was coined by Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy, who did write tales with fairies. These were largely female fairies, regal, powerful, often quick to offend, but also quick to provide aid if they so chose. They wielded greater influence than kings, significant in an era dominated by the Sun King, Louis XIV. I know D'Aulnoy was winking broadly at her audience. Since D'Aulnoy gave us fairy tale, it's worth noting that the most popular tales often do feature fairies.

What about tales with fairies, though? These are the tales that draw more explicitly on lore. I not-so-secretly really enjoy Supernatural and the other night, I was over the moon to see their take on fairy lore in "Clap Your Hands If You Believe..." I think it's become my favourite episode, if only for the scene with the microwave and Dean shouting: "Fight the fairies! You fight those fairies! Fight the fairies!" I sat afterwards, pondering as you do if you're an academic, whether it was urban legend with fairies or fairy tale. Tricky. While the brothers' story seems more urban legend with fairies, particularly since they research fairies and use lore to defeat the bad leprechaun, the core tale about the 'cobbler' rings true as fairy tale.

Sam even has a notebook, a clue to the 'lore' aspect of a tale about fairies.

It's cases like these that make you aware of how bendable genre is. Academics work to define. Storytellers don't worry about definitions - in fact, they're often actively trying to subvert, bend or break definition. In creating fairy tale, D'Aulnoy herself was subverting those tales that she'd inherited. Her version of Cinderella, 'Finette Cendron,' for instance, plays a little joke on the shoe-play in Basile's 'The Cat Cinderella.'

I've none the less come to see fairy tale as a literary genre (in which I do include comics, plays, librettos, film and television scripts). I'm not going to be too strict about this, though.

Finding Fairy Tales in Odd Places

2011-06-17T19:05:00.001-07:00

The other night, I was looking for something fun to read. I'd been alternating between Calvino's collection of Italian fairy tales and the Grimms. Calvino's collection is stupendous. The tales are insane and playful, just as they ought to be. You can pick up threads of the stories you know from Basile, Straparola and others. You laugh out loud a lot, which can be embarrassing at the specialist's waiting room. They are glorious mash-ups with a dash of working class philosophy. The Grimms? I now have issues with the Grimms. The tales are heavier. Many people mention how 'dark' they are, but I don't find them as dark as others I've read. At least, not in the sense of being deliciously, entertainingly dark. The morality feels a bit too strained. No one seems to really enjoy being wicked.

But I thought I needed a change from fairy tales. So I was browsing the Amazon Kindle store, because I have created my own browsing method for online stores. I'd never heard of Michael Swanwick, but I liked his name. I loved the title, The Dog Said Bow-Wow. The cover is terrific. I clicked through to the first pages. I was sold.

I've still only read the first couple of stories, but they are... fairy tales. Who knew? The blurbs tell you these are stories about Faerie, dinosaurs etc, but as you read... yes, they are absolutely fairy tales. Fairy tales that exist in a world that has science fiction and steampunk. They are amazing. There's a scene in the title story that recalls D'Aulnoy's diamonds and emeralds. Surplus, the hero of the tale, is none other than our Puss in Boots, craftily reimagined as a dog.

I have, in short, found a new author! Readers know that thrill. The sense of discovery, the feeling that an author is writing tales just to entertain you. I admit it, I don't like books that I have to work at loving. I love books that feel like they were written just for me. This collection feels like it was written just for me.

And it's fairy tales! I guess, in the end, I didn't need the change - I just need to find more fairy tales.

(Note added: You might also note the profile picture for the blog has changed. I found my perfect Puss in Boots boots.)

Diary Dates

2011-06-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

I've just finished making up a calendar for the unit I'm teaching at Prato next month, Fairy Tale in Italy. I have those moments where I panic that I've not secured hotels for the right nights or flights for the right days. The unit itself booked out very quickly and there's quite a waiting list. Unfortunately, it looks like it won't run next year, but I'm going to try for the following year - 2013. I'm not even used to it being 2011, so writing '2013' is a little alarming.

I'm hoping the experience in Prato will be something like this:

Much Ado About Nothing, 1993

Meanwhile, closer to home, a good friend and colleague, Deb Waterhouse-Watson, and I will be giving our paper "Beyond Wicked Witches and Fairy Godmothers: Ageing and Gender in Recent Children's Fantasy" at Continuum 7, 11am Monday 13th June. It will be followed by a panel elsewhere at the convention, "Crones, Witches and Marginalised Power in Fairytales," featuring Catherynne M. Valente, the guest of honour. The old women aren't so marginalised on Monday 13th, obviously!

I've never been to Continuum, so I'm looking forward to seeing what it's all about. I'm enjoying becoming involved in fan/industry conventions. It gets me out of the old ivory tower now and then. (I wish I did work in an ivory tower - the Menzies really isn't conducive to fairy tale thought and I haven't seen a single Prince try to scale its walls.)

Writing Exercsies

2011-05-19T18:08:00.001-07:00

A little while ago, a good friend reminded me of a story I'd written as part of a 'one page story' challenge. He'd lost his copy and asked if I still had it on my computer. I'd completely forgotten about it, but once I located it, I was actually kind of surprised by how much I still liked it. I admit, as a writer, I tend to hate everything I've written the moment I've finished it. It's a good and a bad thing. It leads to a great deal of angst, but it also encourages me to write better. However, this time, I actually paused and enjoyed something I'd previously written.

It was also a marvelous exercise. I recall that just before we tried the one page story, we played with six word stories. You can see a website for such stories here. I came up with something along the lines: "Met Death. Dying to tell tale." Terrible pun. I didn't submit it.

These are useful exercises, though, if you're suffering a little creative writer's block. They focus the mind. They provide a quick fix of accomplishment. They're particularly entertaining to share, since you aren't asking your friendly readers for hours of their time.

Spurred on, I've created a couple of pages for the blog. One is for scholarly writing. I'll be adding quotes from some of my work there. There's already a few selected quotes from various papers I've given about the place. One page is for fiction. That's where I've pasted in my one page short story.

Incidentally, I'll be presenting at Continuum 7 next month. I'm presenting a paper on ageing in fairy tale and fantasy with a terrific colleague of mine, Deb Waterhouse-Watson.

ABC's Once Upon a Time

2011-05-17T16:45:00.001-07:00

Now, this is what we're hoping for! There's some clips on i09 from the upcoming Once Upon A Time series and it's looking extremely promising. After all, what could be bad about a show featuring Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin? When I first heard that casting coup, I, like others, wondered if it might be a wild rumour, but had high hopes. So I'm rather delighted.

I'm also delighted by Snow White whipping out a sword, even if Prince Charming makes her put it away. I hope she stops listening to him at some point. There should be more sword wielding fairy tale heroines.

UPDATE: You can also see a preview of Grimms here.

So, fan fiction isn't new?

2011-05-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

i09 today covers the British Library's upcoming exhibition on science fiction, which includes the Glass Town sagas written by the Brontës. Charlie Jane Anders indicates how the Brontës engaged in "group storytelling" and "started adding characters from popular fiction and real life." The comments on the piece so far have been lively - engaging with the concept of their work as fan fiction and how even earlier works may be classified as fan fiction. I particularly liked Josh McDonald's comment: "Greek mythology has more continuity errors than Doctor Who." (This is true. It's something I pointed out when a colleague said Disney wasn't true to Greek mythology in Hercules. It's a little difficult to be true to the mythology when there are so many contradictions. Although, admittedly, Meg wouldn't have sounded like she came from Brooklyn, but she's still secretly my favourite Disney heroine.)

It's worth popping over the British Library site to have a closer look at the saga, since, of course, most of us won't be able to make it there in person. The work involved is intricate and detailed. The sisters, particularly, and their brother were quite passionate about world building.

Such activity isn't new. One of my favourite examples is in Anne of Windy Poplars (1936). It isn't really fan fiction, unless you argue that all fairy stories are in some way fan fiction (that in itself isn't a bad argument - the fans involved are simply enthusiastic readers who in turn begin to write).

Anne: "One stormy evening when the wind was howling along Spook's Lane, we couldn't go for a walk, so we came up to my room and drew a map of fairyland. Elizabeth sat on my blue doughnut cushion to make her higher, and looked like a serious little gnome as she bent over the map. (By the way, no phonetic spelling for me! 'Gnome' is far eerier and fairy-er than 'nome.')

"Our map isn't completed yet . . . every day we think of something more to go in it. Last night we located the house of the Witch of the Snow and drew a triple hill, covered completely with wild cherry trees in bloom, behind it. (By the way, I want some wild cherry trees near our house of dreams, Gilbert.) Of course we have a Tomorrow on the map . . . located east of Today and west of Yesterday . . . and we have no end of 'times' in fairyland. Spring-time, long time, short time, new-moon time, good-night time, next time . . . but no last time, because that is too sad a time for fairyland; old time, young time . . . because if there is an old time there ought to be a young time, too; mountain time . . . because that has such a fascinating sound; night-time and day-time . . . but no bed-time or school-time; Christmas-time; no only time, because that also is too sad . . . but lost time, because it is so nice to find it; some time, good time, fast time, slow time, half-past kissing-time, going-home time, and time immemorial . . . which is one of the most beautiful phrases in the world. And we have cunning little red arrows everywhere, pointing to the different 'times.' I know Rebecca Dew thinks I'm quite childish. But, oh, Gilbert, don't let's ever grow too old and wise . . . no, not too old and silly for fairyland."

Teaching English Literature

2011-05-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

The other day, I came across this. Even beyond the whole copyright issue, I won't copy it directly, since it contains a swear word and sometimes people get a little odd about an adult who works in children's lit. even referring to a swear word. But the gist of the item linked is that there is very little overlap between what the author intends and an English teacher (one may insert 'English Lit. scholar') thinks they intend. And it's funny.

The importance of authorial intent has been a fierce debate in English Literature - see for example Barthes' "Death of the Author." Yes, I always quip "no, they're alive and tweeting." It's not so much that I think the author's intent is the last word (after all, that would make my job redundant), but that I think scholars need to be balanced in their approach. Scholars should take into account the production of texts and the people behind them, for that gives us an idea not only of the thematic ballpark we're working in, but also the practical ballpark (and here I'm going to break off the baseball metaphor since I don't know a thing about baseball). For example, recently I was reading an academic book, Nikolajeva and Scott's How Picturebooks Work. It's a very good book and I recommend it. However, it illustrates how I became torn on this issue. I wondered if relating the appearance of crinkled brown endpapers in Sendak's We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy, to a statement on "the rawness of a life devoid of the usual 'civilized' resources" was entirely logical (249). I did quite like the proposal that it represented "the need to use and reuse the detritus of a richer life" (249). However, while both statements make fascinating reading and form a cogent analysis, particularly in relation to Sendak's social themes, a little voice inside me wondered if that was going just a bit too far on those themes - or if the crinkled brown paper was just a clever idea, drawn from the practice of crafting itself, that gave texture to the endpapers; an effect that fitted the overall aesthetic of the book. Sometimes, the simpler answer gets to the heart of the matter. Part of the work of literary scholars is to juggle the urge to take the analysis further and the little voice that wonders, bluntly, 'if you're not reading too much into this.'

Of course, often times, an author or illustrator will write or draw something and later think: 'oh yes, that could also be a reference to the detritus.' (I just like the word 'detritus.') Or they'll hear someone else say it later and nod, pretending that was intended all along. (NOTE: And I should add, the more I thought about this analysis, the more I liked and agreed with it.)

This is part of the challenge. But it is worth reminding ourselves, occasionally, that other people are looking at our clever analyses and thinking "sometimes, the crinkled brown paper is just crinkled brown paper."

Are royal weddings automatically fairy tale weddings?

2011-04-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

I've been away. Not in the happy and relaxed or happy and academically profitable way. In the "lifting more than a comic book or two makes pain inevitable" way. The timing, midway through the semester, could have been better.

On the other hand, it did give me an excuse to watch the royal wedding. Remember the wedding of Princess Mary? It was described as a 'fairy tale wedding'. So too was the wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William just the other day. Why are royal weddings automatic 'fairy tales'? Yes, there are princes involved, but I don't think either Kate or Mary were exactly cursed to clean for housefuls of dwarfs or to be kidnapped by beasts or to run away from lecherous fathers before the nuptials, although part of the romance undoubtedly lies in their status as 'commoners' who rise up the ranks. In a rather neat gender reversal, Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria married her personal trainer. Again, her groom hadn't pushed through thorn barriers or discovered why she kept wearing out her dancing shoes. In contemporary, real world terms, the fairy tale has been boiled down to the wedding ceremony and, particularly, the dress. Fairy tale has become an adjective for wedding paraphernalia and hopes - an indication of how prized a pretty dress and wish for 'happily ever after' still is. While many lament the disassociation of married life from this fairy tale equation, I actually lament the loss of the pre-story with the fantastic adventures, disappointments and serendipities. Somehow, even when there is a prince or princess and a castle into the bargain, the landscape of pubs, gyms and university campuses doesn't quite feel the same.

I should note, too, that I managed to lose a previous post in which I mentioned having seen Red Riding Hood with my fairy tale reading group (it was a sometimes slightly bizarre, Twilight-infused mash-up of tropes) and Terry Pratchett at the Wheeler Centre (funny and incredibly sensible and I can now tick him off on my list of authors I'd really like to see and hear speak).

But I'll end on this note.

Last year I gave a talk at AussieCon 4 on the Doctor as fairy godfather. I simply had to get my hands on this latest comic issue.

The Great Diana Wynne Jones

2011-03-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

Diana Wynne Jones has died. She leaves a legacy of great books, including Howl's Moving Castle, one of my favourites.

The Guardian has a very good obituary and it made me grin:

"She was amused by the considerable academic attention her work attracted; reading in one paper that her work was 'rooted in fluidity', she remarked: 'Obviously hydroponic, probably a lettuce, possibly a cabbage.'"

I love how authors often view academic criticism of their work. It's a good reminder to academics not to take themselves quite so seriously.

I was also delighted to learn something new as I read Neil Gaiman's blog post: "she told me once that the young Chrestomanci in The Lives of Christopher Chant was sort of based on me too." I did not know that. I'm tempted to break that book out again now.

The strength of a great author is in how their legacy continues to make you smile.

Kids Need to Read

2011-03-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

Today on the bus to and from campus, I was listening to the Geek Dad podcast with Nathan Fillion and P.J. Haarsma, who were talking about Kids Need To Read. It was fascinating listening to authors and other vested parties talking about the importance of giving kids access to books - and not just to books that teachers or librarians think they should read, but simply to books.

We'd just been talking in class about why as a society we value reading. The discussion was in relation to Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Education Rodents, in which rats like Dangerous Beans and Peaches learn to read and write and want to pass these skills on. How often do we study literature, but not really think about why it's important? How often do we say 'kids should read' without really articulating why? Of course, the answer isn't easy or singular. Although, I think ultimately it does come down to the ability to think more. Reading gives us access to all kinds of thinking that we can use in our lives and writing gives us an opportunity to express and share what we think. There are other ways to do this, of course, but reading and writing are among the most common and widespread and have helped build incredible communities.

I'd love to start a project like Kids Need To Read. It'd be great to integrate into a subject like Children's Literature. One day!

Incidentally, pop over to P.J. Haarsma's website - it is pretty amazing.

Blood in Fairy Tale

2011-02-22T03:36:00.001-08:00

I'm going to be preoccupied with the presence of blood in fairy tales for the next couple of weeks. This may sound slightly macabre (or very macabre), but in truth, I'm actually a late addition to the Fairy Tales Re-imagined programme: scroll down to the end there.

One of the first things that occurred to me as I contemplated my panel was that while we often associate blood with violence in fairy tale, very often the lips or cheeks of a particular beauty will be associated with blood. I have something to say about this, but I'm saving it for the panel!

A few quick things

2011-02-20T13:42:00.001-08:00

I'm just having another quick cup of coffee before getting reading for a day of meetings.

I did come across this post linking to 18th century animal illustrations from 'Collection des Animaux Quadrupèdes'. The animals have peculiarly human expressions. We'll be studying anthropomorphism in Children's Literature this semester, as it underpins much of the great work: Winnie-the-Pooh, Peter Rabbit etc. Who doesn't love teaching Winnie-the-Pooh?

We also have our new CFP for a conference in August.

TIGHTS AND TIARAS: FEMALE SUPERHEROES AND MEDIA CULTURES

12-13 August 2011

Monash University, Melbourne

Sponsored by: The Centre for the Book, Monash University

In 2010, the 600th issue of Wonder Woman celebrated the Amazonian superhero’s longevity in print media. To mark the occasion, the issue reinvented the superhero’s iconic costume to make it less revealing, introducing dark trousers and a blue, starred jacket. This shift to more practical, less sexualised wear arguably reflects changing attitudes about gender and the growing female presence in the comics industry. Nonetheless, the change prompted some controversy online amongst fan communities, again highlighting the problematic history of the representation of women as powerful figures.

‘Tights and Tiaras: Female Superheroes and Media Cultures’ is a one and a half day interrogation of the construct of the ‘superhero’ as female and more generally of the representation of powerful female figures in fantasy and science fiction. Looking at a range of print and visual media, papers will explore the range of female characters in superhero narratives, the material history of the female superhero, and how visual and textual constructs of female heroes - and anti-heroes - have been re-imagined, re-invented and re-packaged over time.

Possible topics include:

● The representation of female superheroes in print and visual media – in comics, comix, graphic novels, novels, short stories, fan fiction, film, television, and other media forms

● Distribution of narratives and images of female superheroes across multiple genres and media platforms

● The female hero quest

● Deconstructing the superhero trope – studies in feminism, patriotism, politics, race, satire, comedy, and so on

● Constructs of the female supervillain

● Superhero fashions, including costumes, cosplay and sartorial signifiers

● Female collaboration in comics

● Female comics artists: historical and contemporary

● Female comics audiences and fan communities

● Analysis of the institutional, commercial and licensing histories of female superhero properties

● The construction of powerful women in fantasy and science fiction genres

Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words, accompanied by a brief bio, by emailed attachment to Dr Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario (Rebecca .DoRozario @monash .edu). The deadline for abstracts is 11 April, 2011.

We're really looking forward to this one.

One of the members of the reading group behind the conference also has a blog, Silk for Caldé. He just published a post on his new Lisa Snellings-Clark poppets, which are brilliant. Snellings-Clark also has a special edition range of poppets for The Graveyard Book. I'm still kicking myself for not getting her Gaiman rat.

Last, the ERA 2012 Ranked Outlets Public Consultation is open. Please have a look. This is about the ranking of scholarly journals. There are some brilliant scholarly journals, like Marvels & Tales, languishing at a C ranking for no logical reason and this is an opportunity to provide feedback and an argument for a better ranking. You can register at:

https://roci.arc.gov.au/

Universities are already starting to advise academics not to publish in C ranked journals. This is potentially very damaging, particularly to smaller (at least in Australia) and newer fields of research.

Reminder - Fairy Tales Re-Imagined Symposium

2011-02-13T22:33:00.001-08:00

Who knew catching up on email could take most of the day? One week out of action and the email reached terrifying proportions.

But I did learn of a new addition to the Fairy Tales Re-Imagined Symposium:

Dark Tales, Serial Archetypes
5pm, 11 March 2011
Cinema 2

Quoting from the promotional material:

"You may not know it, but the fairytale is alive and well and living in your TV through characters such as Dexter Morgan.

Join Jeff Lindsay, author and creator of our favourite serial killer sociopath, in conversation with Professor Sue Turnbull as they explore the renaissance of macabre fairytales in popular culture and examine how fairytales have influenced Lindsay’s writing."

Tickets can be purchased separately for the talk, with details available on the website (linked above).

The Coming Semester

2011-02-01T17:47:00.001-08:00

This semester, I'm coordinating ATS2519 and ATS3519 (same unit, different levels), Children's Literature.

The books we'll be looking at include:

Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

Emily Gravett, Wolves

Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book (Penguin edition, intro Daniel Karlin)
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are
Shaun Tan & John Marsden, The Rabbits
Julie Vivas & Mem Fox, Possum Magic
Marcus Zusak, The Book Thief

We’ll also be sampling from Beatrix Potter’s The Flopsy Bunnies, A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and Ruth Park’s The Muddle-headed Wombat.

It's funny, isn't it? Yet entirely sensible. When looking at English Lit. units, one tends to think less about the overarching themes and epochs and more about the books themselves. Of course, the downside is that there are always going to be books on the curriculum that people don't like or find boring. This is okay. Although occasionally you have to prevent scuffles over whether Rowling is overrated and don't even mention Meyer. All healthy debate, though!

This year, I changed up the books a little. I'd been teaching Little Women. I really like Little Women. I read all the books about Jo's life and cried over the melodramatic Jo's Boys. But, as I confessed to students, Anne of Green Gables was always my favourite. Students would ask why I didn't teach Anne instead. I guess because she was and is my favourite. Yet, I realised that I was being a bit silly about it. I can forgive Little Women its obsession with goodness, but oh how refreshing to read Anne again and find that she very often wasn't trying to be good, but that she wholeheartedly stood up for herself. Who doesn't love that she cracks Gilbert over the head with her slate for calling her 'carrots'? Or that Marilla sympathises?

Oh... that's the one catch in teaching Anne. I've reread the books and reread the books, but I've likewise seen the miniseries with Megan Follows far too often (although, not The Continuing Story and A New Beginning). I get the books and the mini series mixed up. That is going to be a struggle this semester!

I've also added Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I like to try to include new books (ie from this century) and this one has a great advantage. You can follow Gaiman's reading of the book here. How fantastic is it that today we can hear and see the author read their work, no matter where we live? I think this is an underestimated benefit of the digital world for literary studies.

Academic Blogging

2011-01-30T17:04:00.000-08:00

Should academics blog?

Yesterday, I held an informal workshop with my postgraduate students. It's an occasion for us all to meet and discuss the down and dirty aspects of working on a PhD thesis. I always mean to introduce more baked goods to these meetings, but the last few days have been far too hot to even think about ovens (the witch in the gingerbread house did not live in Melbourne in summer). Yesterday, we began talking about the importance of - and drawbacks of - having an online presence.

There are a few reasons I began to blog here:

1. I often come across information and links that are of interest in my research. The blog is an opportunity for me to pull these together and share them with students.
2. I can communicate with past, present and potentially future students beyond the classroom.
3. The blog provides me with some control over my online presence. Through the blog, people can at least see how I like to present my work.

More and more, publishers are also checking the online presence of potential authors. This is something to think about for those hoping to go the authorial route.

There are, of course, drawbacks. Blogs are public. Anyone can read them, so you have to be mindful that you are publishing, albeit in a more informal way. Copyright boundaries are still vigorously debated. There are trolls and their bridges apparently have wi-fi these days.

Yet, I like having my blog. It helps me to think about what I'm doing and what it means in terms of the wider community. I think it is a useful tool for academics.

A while ago, Patrick Spedding blogged about our colleagues' blogs, including mine. I also came across a blog by Maria Nikolajeva, best known by myself for her work on children's literature. She helpfully blogged, among other things, about her career trajectory. Nikolejeva combines personal and academic reflection and the first time I came upon her blog, I read her post on baking bread. There is, of course, Henry Jenkins, too. His blog is a great source for interviews with great thinkers, whether from industry, fandom or academia. There is little personal reflection, but, then, Jenkins has worked his life as a fan into his academic life. Each academic decides on what they feel comfortable with sharing. The important thing, I think, is to respect those boundaries and for readers of the blog to understand that it is a blog - not an academic monograph.

Literary Knitting

2011-01-30T14:39:00.000-08:00

The Sanguine Gryphon has a Winter 2011 pattern collection inspired by literature. I've already picked up "As You Wish" and "Taming of the Fox". This morning I noticed that Boing Boing readers were being directed to "Hwaeti", so the collection is seriously turning heads.

There's also fairy tale in the collection with "Jack".

I love that some of the patterns are incorporating words themselves. "As You Wish" features those immortal words from The Princess Bride (incidentally, how great is it to see that brilliant book included along side The Great Gatsby and Emma?). Now I just need more time to knit... and possibly cooler weather.

Incidentally, the Sanguine Gryphon also has an awesome steampunk pattern collection.

Patterns like these remind me why I picked up knitting. Not that I would recommend these patterns for knitting during lectures. For lecture-knitting, you need plain, simple knitting.

Fairy Tale Pilot

2011-01-28T17:17:00.001-08:00

I just learned that a pilot for Grimm has been greenlit. Behind the fairy tale/crime drama are David Greenwalt, known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and Jim Kouf, known for Angel. That provides me with an element of confidence in the concept. Both Buffy and Angel have some wonderful fairy tale moments - "Hush," for instance. The "Through the Looking Glass" episodes of Angel are also a good twist on fairy tale experience and I've always had a soft spot for the old Groosalugg.

I think the comments to the Inside TV article, linked above, were intriguing, though. Many brought up the resemblance to Fables and a couple of comments brought up Fforde's Nursery Crime Division. In fact, much fairy tale involves criminal activity - stolen golden eggs, kidnapped princesses, murdered grannies, con artists etc - so it makes sense that authors today are drawing on the crime element. They don't need to be copying each other - it's there in the stories.

Not to mention that fairy tale is one genre where ideas and motifs continue to be regularly recycled into new stories and retellings. That's what makes fairy tale such a brilliant field to be working in.

And now I really need a cup of coffee. I was up till 2am last night (this morning?) finalising copy edits.

(Update: i09 just posted a piece on the above news, featuring a clip from Fairy Tale Police.)

So You Want To Write Science Fiction?

2011-01-28T14:21:00.001-08:00

StarShipSofa, an excellent podcast for science fiction that only recently won the 2010 Hugo Award, is running an online writers workshop. This is a great opportunity for those hoping to hone their skills and take advantage of the wisdom of those in the industry. The session, What An Editor Wants - Sheila Williams, is particularly notable. Writing a brilliant piece of fiction is only half the battle. Navigating the publishing world is the other half.

Bookmark Corners

2011-01-26T16:14:00.000-08:00

I love ideas that make organising research that much simpler. I picked up this terrific idea for using old envelopes to make bookmarks from d.Sharp Journal. It's a great example of re-use of materials, it doesn't cost a thing, it avoids the messy effect of 1001 post-it notes being stuck to pages, and you can write little messages to yourself on it.

Oscar Nominations 2011

2011-01-25T18:26:00.001-08:00

Keep your fingers crossed for Shaun Tan, nominated for the animated adaptation of his picture book, The Lost Thing.

There's an amazing website if you'd like to catch up on the film.

We had Shaun Tan visit Monash a couple of years ago to speak to students. He gave a fantastic presentation and was incredibly gracious, staying back to sign books. The line very rapidly grew! So I'd like to congratulate him on this latest achievement.

We're studying The Rabbits, illustrated by Tan, this semester in Children's Literature. I'm hoping to introduce more of his work into the curriculum. The rest of the world has been sitting up and noticing his talent and this is good news for Australian literature.

The Dog Ate My Homework

2011-01-24T13:08:00.000-08:00

Boing Boing this morning features a sign encouraging academic honesty: "Professors have heard all the excuses before. Pretend you're talking to a vampire. You wouldn't lie to a vampire, would you?"

As much as I'd appreciate academic honesty and try to live up to it myself, I'm not sure I want to be thought of as a vampire.

Particularly in light of comment #3 - I really don't want to be covered in glitter.

However, I am wondering if a variation on the theme would be suitable for the unit guide's small print? Just to see how many people really do read it?

Art and the Written Word - then it's all about rolling up the sleeves

2011-01-17T15:28:00.000-08:00

I continue to find art like this awesome.

I have a few more days leave up my sleeve, then it's all about rolling up the sleeves to ensure unit guides, classes, tutors, test papers and the other assorted paraphernalia of academic life is sorted before semester begins. It's going to be a busy year. We've got Children's Literature in the first semester, with new unit codes to get our heads around (just when I'd finally memorised the last codes), HDR projects at interesting junctures, a fairy tale project that is still in its early stages, a new conference to announce shortly, and then in the middle of the year... teaching fairy tales at Prato. I've already bought a new suitcase. It has bows on it.

Growing Up

2011-01-07T15:21:00.000-08:00

This morning I was reading Alain de Botton's piece, "A Point of View: Justifying Culture." He queries the inability of academics in the humanities to explain the importance of their work. At times, it is difficult. And I do agree that often we fall into that trap of: "speaking only in dangerously vague terms about the value of culture in helping people to 'think'." Though 'thinking' is a simple, yet fundamental and amazing aspect of who we are.

Some of the work we do does appear impossibly esoteric. I've at times furrowed my brow over why someone should care about the sexuality of a warthog or an obscure bibliographic point about a seventeenth century edition of fairy tales. Yet, as I go along, I begin to understand how it all fits into a bigger picture. Stories matter. How they're told, printed, collected, read... these things all matter. They tell us little things about human nature and the world we live in. Sometimes they tell us big things. Most of all, they tell us how stories tick. Stories are, I think, a natural phenomenon as worth understanding as quantum mechanics or neurology. Just as we all breathe and live and die, just as the world turns and stars 'fall,' we all tell and attend to stories.

Alain de Botton writes: "My personal view of what the humanities are for is simple - they should help us to live. We should look to culture as a repository of useful and consoling ideas about how to face our most pressing personal and professional issues. We should look to novels and historical narratives to impart moral instruction and edification, to great paintings for suggestions about value, to philosophy to probe our anxieties and offer consolations."

I am admittedly always cautious over and often dismissive of the 'moral instruction' element. I teach fairy tales and children's literature. It's a minefield of morality and I have great sympathy with Mark Twain's attitude, expressed in the notice to Huckleberry Finn: "Persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished." Morality is such a shifty thing. I don't trust it at all. I also worry about the implications of 'consoling ideas.' Would we potentially have classrooms that are akin, at the very worst, to therapy sessions? I don't want study to turn into a self-obsessive habit - for a fantastic story to become all about 'me.' That's why I like the big picture. Just as an astronomer looks out to the stars and thinks about galaxies and black holes, I look at the history of storytelling and think about all those Rapunzels and Cinderellas and Sleeping Beauties. It's not that I find long hair, cute shoes and long naps a consolation (well, maybe the shoes and the naps) or their fates a moral example by which to live life, it's that I want to understand how those tales work and why they work and what they tell us about how the world works.

Yet, I do respect the call for universities to teach us how to live. When I teach children's literature, for instance, I like to challenge students to enjoy and stand up for the right of adults to engage with these stories, to challenge the idea of what it is to be 'grown up' and what it is to be a child. We share stories about the reactions of friends and families as we curl up in a chair with Where the Wild Things Are or Harry Potter. We question which stories are important and how, and even why, we make those calls.

I believe one of the problems facing the university system as a whole is the increasing pressure to act as a training facility. There is an idea that going to university should equip you to do a certain job, to embark upon a certain career. That idea is gaining ground. At Open Days, you will hear a parent asking "but what can she do?" with the degree. On one memorable occasion, I even heard a parent ask "but what will he be paid?" once armed with the degree. There is an essential incompatibility of the university system with the jobs market. While often a degree in Medicine or Architecture immediately leads to the appropriate job (although it may lead to many other things, too), a degree in Philosophy will not be so straight forward. There aren't many paid philosophers about. Yet, universities are not places where you obtain the education required for the one job, the one future. They are places where you go to engage with knowledge and wisdom, where you go to be equipped for any kind of future that might follow. Universities are about educating people for and about possibilities. What people do with that education is up to them and hopefully, by the time they leave the campus, whether with or without the degree (for sometimes the degree isn't everything), they will know that and be ready to make the most of all possibilities, professional or otherwise.

The reason it is so difficult to say exactly what academics do is that we can do almost anything and everything. It's why I became an academic.

2011 - I'm already knocking on wood

2011-01-02T15:44:00.000-08:00

I am very nervous about this as my first post for 2011, but it's so brilliant, I think I just have to.

"Nasty Case of Writer's Block Creates the Most Brilliant Scientific Paper Ever" (via i09)

Now I'm going to do everything possible to ensure I don't jinx myself for the rest of the year by starting with a post about writer's block.

So I am not, therefore, going to give you tips about how to get past writer's block. Besides, my method, which involves listening to the Rolling Stones, looking up design blogs and finally weeding the garden beds, is perhaps not the best method out there.

The best method is to simply write.

We all know that's harder than it sounds.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday

2010-12-23T15:10:00.000-08:00

I think I'm all set for the holiday season.

(Note: the tiara is for upcoming academic projects... not simply because I've always wanted to wear a tiara. Honest.)

Odds and Ends Staring With Romance

2010-12-09T14:25:00.000-08:00

I feel quite pleased with myself. In discussion with students, we decided that eBooks and romance novels would be the ideal partnership. According to Julie Bosman in The New York Times, we were dead right:

"Romance is now the fastest-growing segment of the e-reading market, ahead of general fiction, mystery and science fiction, according to data from Bowker, a research organization for the publishing industry."

Since Romance accounts for an enormous portion of the publishing industry, this is significant news.

I haven't yet been reading romance on my iPad, but I am reading Terry Pratchett and downloading many more books to read over my upcoming break. My only concern is that the price for many academic eBooks is still high. I'm not sure of the thinking behind that. Academic books do not generate large print runs or high sales figures generally and authors rarely receive more than a few dollars in royalties, so it seems to me that eBooks are an excellent opportunity to make academic books both cheaper and, thus, more readily available. Of course, this could impact academic libraries, but the ability to, for a small cost, download an academic book you'll be working with for a few months versus the inconvenience of repeated renewals of library loans (and the inevitable trip to the library to return and reborrow when you've used up your renewals) is tempting. Likewise, as I'm working on my own academic book, the inbuilt search facility of an eBook is much more convenient both for researchers (who may be looking up terms not considered for the index) and authors (who have to laboriously create their own indexes).

Earlier this morning, however, I was rather grumpy. I received another request for revisions for an article I'd submitted to a journal. Revisions in themselves are not bad things. You have a fresh opportunity to go over your work. Since the vetting process of most journals takes at least a couple of months, this is beneficial. You likewise receive suggestions and notes from referees and these can help you improve the article no end. However, one of the trials with academic life is that at times, you can appear to be in the 'Pit of Revision' (think 'Pit of Despair'). You long to work on a nice, new, pristine article, but instead, you're back revising something written months earlier. The previous pleasure of attaching a file and clicking send to clear your life of one piece of scholarship dissipates as the file comes winging back with referee reports attached.

Finally, I was reading one student's heart felt lament that a teacher who had encouraged them during a course had seemed to have forgotten who they were when they asked about their final grade. Speaking from experience, don't be too hard on teachers. After a couple of weeks living with a spread sheet, we forget who our nearest and dearest are at times. It's usually only after the horrified expression that we realise our mistake and the memory comes flooding back. If you say hello a month later, we'll know who you are. But during the final marking and grading push when everything has turned to percentages and codes... please be forgiving.

Will It Work?

2010-12-06T12:38:00.000-08:00

I read in The New York Times this morning that a website has been set up to encourage teenage literary activity. The website encourages teens to upload their own writing:

"'We wanted people to be able to write whatever they wanted in whatever form they wanted,' Mr. Lewis said. 'We give them a piece of paper and say, ‘Go.’ ' He added that so far contributions had included fantasy, science fiction, biographical work and long serial novels. 'There’s a very earnest and exacting quality to what they’re doing.'"

I wish it success, although I'm always a little wary of the word 'earnest' and attempts in the area of what I'll refer to as 'organised encouragement.' Some organisation is a good thing, but there has to be room for users to participate in the evolution of the thing.

There are sites out there offering similar opportunities to adult authors.

Fairy tales are more than texts

2010-11-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

I've remarked before that you can usually spot a fairy tale scholar. They're much more likely to be wearing great shoes and to have a certain sartorial flare (this may also be true of Jane Austen scholars, but, then, she wrote one of our greatest versions of Beauty and the Beast, Pride & Prejudice). No, I'm not counting myself here... although I do own some great shoes.

I have recently discovered Pinterest, which is a source of wonderful procrastination and inspiration (it's terrifying how often the two are the one and the same thing). They have a special set for 'Fairy tales and secret stories'. I love the idea of 'secret stories' being linked to fairy tales. Fairy tales, as we know, are filled with little secrets. They're like those cabinets with secret drawers. They look like ordinary tales until you find just the right phrase or word to push, and then you discover the treasures.

Today, in 'Fairy tales and secret stories,' I saw an incredible image of dragon slaying by Boy_Wonder (Joel).

In Context

2010-11-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

It's always amusing when you take the long view of history and realise that we aren't the first to complain about students being distracted or unable to spell. Via Boing Boing this morning Ann Blair's Boston Globe piece, Information overload, the early years, noting: "The ancient moralist Seneca complained that 'the abundance of books is distraction' in the 1st century AD."

Perhaps more importantly for my line of work, Blair notes: "In the academic world, critics have begun to argue that universities are producing and distributing more knowledge than we can actually use." It is something that we're thinking about. Those articles we spend hours and hours writing and then revising? How many people actually use them? Are there better, more useful ways to discuss ideas? Are the means by which we place value on research antiquated?

The Problem With Debates About Learning

2010-11-25T15:47:00.001-08:00

Today I read a great piece in the Huffington Post by Don Tapscott: New York Times Cover Story on "Growing Up Digital" Misses the Mark.

What intrigues me about such debates - if you take into account the 'lively' comments section accompanying the article - is that these changes aren't really either/or propositions, nor are they really linked to human generations. Technological and media generations - yes. New technologies and media will prompt new responses. There's a strong temptation to claim that 'younger' generations, however, think differently because they use these new technologies and are exposed to new media. Yet, from my own experience, there are technologies and media I've picked up very quickly, because they suit the way I think and do things, not because I'm of the generation who grew up with them. I find the iPad helps me enormously, but I'm frustrated with mobile phones. I enjoy using Twitter, but I'm not really a gamer. These responses have nothing to do with my age or demographic and I haven't changed how I think. My use of the iPad and other media like Twitter reflects my early habits of reading several books at once, writing fan fiction and filking (before the latter were known as such). My dislike of mobile phones relates more to my general dislike of phones altogether (I do have a phone - it's a 1960s red bakelite phone that you literally dial) and just as I was never really mad about Monopoly, Scrabble, charades and games in general, I've not really been interested in gaming.

There are also, believe it or not, teenagers who have trouble working with technologies and media that are current. In terms of teaching, I notice all the time that students will respond in incredibly diverse ways to the techniques and approaches that I utilise. It's never a one-size fits all proposition. Technologies and media have simply highlighted a certain way of going about the processes of gaining and using knowledge and information. In a sense, it's enabled certain thinkers who were previously under a handicap when stuck with just textbooks and liquid paper.

Tapscott suggests: "Searching for information on the Internet is obviously a different exercise than reading a book. You read or scan until you have found what you wanted, and then you click on a keyword to hunt for more information. Unlike the journey you take when you read a book, no one is holding your hand or serving as your guide. You're on your own. But it requires the same skills you need to read a book -- plus the ability to scan, navigate, analyze whether information is pertinent, synthesize, and remember what question you're trying to answer as you click on the links."

Tapscott's comment reminded me of how I'd approach school assignments by taking information from random sources and putting it together in unlikely ways. I rarely utilised the books I was directed to absorb. I didn't have the internet, but I used books and magazines in much the same way I now use the internet. Of course, today when I happily click through google books, I remember my childhood of random library raids and think 'this is so much easier'. I'm enabled now. Just as alternative literacies have come out from under the shadow of the book.

In essence, I've not 'grown up digital'. I was just waiting for the digital age.

Aca-Zombies

2010-11-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

A friend linked me this piece on "Invasion of the Aca-zombies" from The Australian.

Joseph Gora and Andrew Whelan begin with a curious observation of the current state of academia: "Universities are increasingly populated by the undead: a listless population of academics, managers, administrators and students, all shuffling to the beat of the corporatist drum." Happily, they also identify a resistance: "A tutorial here, textbook marginalia there, crack squads of indomitable postgrads, secretive cells of idealistic academics and even the odd public intellectual: all scattered signs that intelligent life persists."

Still, where's Lizzy Bennet when you need her?

Whelan, Chris Moore and Ruth Walker are putting together a book on the subject. The CFP can be found on their website.

One of my colleagues also blogged about this.

On a brighter note, I recently downloaded the iPad app for Jasper Fforde's new book, The Last Dragonslayer. Perhaps that's what we need in academia? More slayers...

Play Book Dominoes

2010-10-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or do I feel the odd desire to try this at the Matheson Library?

The link takes you (via Boing Boing) to an ad for a US bookseller, Bookmans, using books as dominoes. It's quirky and brilliant. And also gives me ideas about how to arrange my research books. It would give a whole new meaning to 'knocking down that bit of research.'

Chaucer Blogs

2010-10-25T15:42:00.001-07:00

I've come across this blog, Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog, previously, but thought it worth a mention, particularly as one of the recent posts reviews The Consolation of Philosophie the Vampyre Slayer and how can you not enjoy a line like, "Anon, Ladye Philosophie, who knoweth nat whethir she loveth Plato or Spyke moore, cometh to save Boece"?

Giving Scary Books

2010-10-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

I think this idea from Neil Gaiman's recent post is great - basically, on Halloween, give someone - or many someones - a scary book.

It did give me pause for thought, though, as I realised most of my friends already read the books I read. Can I think of a scary book they haven't come across? Any suggestions?

It also occurred to me that many fairy tales count as very scary stories. Just check out the Baba Yaga tales and lines like:

"Then the doll's eyes began to shine like fireflies, and suddenly it became alive."

What could be better than a book of Baba Yaga tales?

And since Neil Gaiman suggested that some readers felt "that it's not proper blog post unless it has Dog Photos," I thought I'd use that as an excuse to include one myself. He's been threatening to eat the teetering pile of essays I have yet to grade.

Disney at the ACMI

2010-10-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

One of my undergrad. students was quick on the mark and told me about an upcoming Disney exhibition at the ACMI: "Dreams Come True: The Art of Disney's Classic Fairy Tales" (18 Nov - 26 April). I did quip that it would have made a great field trip if only it had fallen into the teaching schedule for Fairy Tale Traditions.

Alas.

I find myself having the oddest mixed feelings about it, however. I did my PhD on Disney animated and theatrical musicals. I spent a good three years entirely preoccupied with windy warthogs and singing teapots. I spotted the masterclass with Glen Keane and Roy Conli and thought about the hours I spent pouring over Glen Keane's artwork and any interviews I could find that gave me insight into how he approached the physicality of fairy tale characters. How odd would be it to actually see him?

I've been teaching Beauty and the Beast since then and I'm currently just easing myself back to my earlier work and expanding ideas about how Disney deals in fairy tale fashion.

Yet, as many fear, when you do a PhD, you can sometimes make it impossible to ever again look at the topic of your research. In part, I chose my topic knowing that I could survive three years of preoccupation with aforementioned windy warthogs and singing teapots (I'm not even going to think about what that says about me). Following the PhD, I couldn't look at Disney again for a good couple of years. I needed a break.

Now?

I am gradually reconnecting with that spark of curiosity. The one that made me wonder just how Disney managed to spin fairy tales on a global scale never before imagined. During my PhD, I had to challenge the almost overwhelmingly negative scholarship existent on Disney in order to really get to the heart of the storytelling and why it was working as well as it did. I just couldn't believe that merely exploitative storytelling would capture the hearts and minds of so many over so long a time and over so many cultures and communities.

What I found was a dynamic collaboration of storytellers and for better or for worse, they still intrigue me.

So I guess I'll be visiting the exhibition after all and that a PhD doesn't spell the end of one's fascination with any given topic.

Animating Books

2010-10-08T17:49:00.001-07:00

I'll begin with this amazing animation of "Going West" from Andersen M. Studios. I have the oddest feeling I might have blogged it before, but it's worth repeating in any case. There's other fantastic animations and textual installments on their website.

***

I recently read a New York Times article about the decline of picture books with sadness. Julie Bosman reports: "Parents have begun pressing their kindergartners and first graders to leave the picture book behind and move on to more text-heavy chapter books. Publishers cite pressures from parents who are mindful of increasingly rigorous standardized testing in schools."

Those who know picture books know that this originates from the common misconception that picture books are 'easier' than chapter books to read. No, picture books aren't easier to read. Picture books are a different kind of book, but some of the most amazing, complex, mind-boggling narrative comes from picture books, not to mention the additional level of interaction between illustration and text, with text often becoming illustration and thus raising the interpretive bar. The problem is, many adults continue to endorse a world view in which pictures 'dumb down' text. This is odd, when you think about it. Graphic novels are gaining ground. Books shops are stocking more and more comics. This should mean that more space can be given to picture books, not less, as members of our literate society become more and more active in reading illustrated books.

Some scholars thinking about this news (I won't name names) have suggested that eBooks may also be to blame for the decrease in interest in picture books, but I think eBooks are going to, and are already developing stunning ways to present picture books. I've blogged the Alice App a couple of times and I recently downloaded the Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy App. I was really impressed by the level of interaction the App builds into its functions and that you can even colour in the book. I still like my material picture books, but the alternative options are looking good.

Pasta Inspiration

2010-10-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's the upcoming fairy tale unit in Italy (view details here), maybe it's simply that I love pasta and new ways of playing with text, but this video for Jacob Kennedy and Caz Hildebrand's The Geometry of Pasta had me at farfelle. What an amazing book, simply in terms of design. And it's marvelous to see book trailers evolve into such beautiful animation.

Authors and Their Covers

2010-09-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

At a panel at AussieCon 4, the topic of authorial control over book covers came up. Authors, in general, have little or no control over the covers of their books. This often surprises students. It's often a source of great frustration to authors. It's also, it turns out, frustrating to illustrators who are often only given a brief and later find out that the brief doesn't really relate to the novel at all.

So, I love Ben Tripp's response. He wrote a novel about zombies, but wanted it to be accessible to a general readership. Unfortunately, the publishers decided on a cover that makes it very genre specific. His comeback? On his website, he's providing alternate covers you can download, print off, and re-cover your book with. I'm particularly fond of the cookbook cover.

There's an interesting dynamic emerging as publishing houses rely more and more on authors creating their own online presence, while at the same time, some authors are rebelling against the dictates of their publishers through this very online presence.

(Later note: On the other hand, there are other problems/opportunities in the academic publishing area. I was just reading a disheartening blog post at Savage Minds about the closure of Rice University Press. I'm not familiar with the ins and outs, but the post had some good points to make about the difficulties faced in academic publishing today.)

Getting out from behind the lectern - and Joss Whedon

2010-09-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

An academic friend and I have been debating the issue of fashion and the female academic. We were inspired by a blog post, "Mind over Malls or, Does Academia Hate Fashion." Minh-ha T. Pham notes:

"That fashion scholarship and fashion/style blogging seem to be mostly circling each other rather than interfacing is not so much the failure of academics as it is the evidence of the persistence of the beauty/brains division in academia in particular and society at large."

I think this is starting to break down. Just as geeks are becoming fashion forward, academics are finding new ways to express their research interests through fashion. It's actually quite entertaining popping along to a conference and trying to figure out an academic's area of expertise based on their dress. It can be as easy a giveaway as an ironic pop culture shirt to the more subtle beret and wrap that might mark an Austen scholar. At a very practical level, today I noticed a blog post in which a very practical reason for bright shoes was voiced:

"You had to know that I was going to wear a colorful shoe, right? I’ve realized that I am far less likely to hide behind a podium when teaching if I’m wearing a bright shoe. A bold heel deserves a bold presentation style."

Oh, and remember that I went to Joss Whedon's keynote speech at the Melbourne Writers Festival? There's a transcript available to look at now. This is one of my favourite moments from his keynote:

"Well, a lot of my writing is influenced by comic books, a lot of my directing is influenced by comic books. They make very iconic images, they know exactly, you know, where to put “the camera”, they do the storytelling in – they have to put everything in these panels to get from place to place, and when it’s done well, you really know, you really feel that flow. And but you also feel the “pop” of these moments, so you’re not just sort of [bumps the microphone] – oh excuse me. [realises] I just apologised to a microphone. I really do need to work on my self-esteem, huh?" (Min, omg - squee)

I also noticed another piece on the same website that made me click, "Authors are People Too" (Firefall). It's worth a look if you're interested in how fans are now influencing the work of their favourite authors.

Want to study fairy tale in Tuscany?

2010-09-15T16:33:00.001-07:00

If you're a Monash student, here is your chance! My new Prato unit is up and official. You can find the details here. I'm very excited about it. I'm also wondering if shoe shopping in Florence can be worked in as a field trip...

Shoes, fairy tale... it all makes sense.

Understanding the place of fanfic in literary culture

2010-09-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

Naomi Novik recently gave a great interview about how fan fiction is part of literary history ( via i09). A couple of times at AussieCon 4, Cory Doctorow mentioned his own well-known stance on fan fiction:

"And once readers model a character, it's only natural that readers will take pleasure in imagining what that character might do offstage, to noodle around with it. This isn't disrespect: it's active reading." (Locus Magazine)

I'll admit, I don't really read a lot of fan fiction. I read some of the fiction friends write, but I'm having enough trouble keeping up with the arrivals of comics, fairy tales, novels and such that then pile up. Nonetheless, I get frustrated with myself. I believe in fan fiction. Why don't I read more of it? Why do I let it reside at the bottom of the 'to read' pile? For that matter, why don't I write more?

Well, in terms of the latter, time is the easy answer. I did once write fan fiction, but it was scribbled into the back of geography notebooks and passed around friends. I went to high school before the Internet was around. But writing with established characters provided fascinating opportunities to explore how we all related to them and, indeed, opportunities to write for known audiences. I could use what I knew about my friends' interests to appropriately tweak my stories. As a writer, it provided vital practice in 'knowing one's audience.' Today's fan fiction writers are writing mostly to fan bases. They have to grapple with factions and theories and rumours in the fan community, not simply with the 'canonical' material. This offers a fascinating insight into how writers and readers engage and debate story.

If you're interested in the topic at an academic level, a great place to start is Henry Jenkins' Textual Poachers.

Incidentally, over at Silk for Caldé, there's a terrific post on AussieCon 4.

Genre Fiction

2010-09-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

I found this little gem via a retweet this morning:

"At the bookstore later in the day, my son stood in front of the Sci Fi section and said, in a very loud voice: 'Mom, this is my new gender.'" (Original blog post here.)

I love that this gem comes from a writing professor, whose blog is titled Was Jack Kerouac a Punjabi?

AussieCon 4 is over. I have a new skill. I can say Raxacoricofallapatorius with ease. I had been displaying this skill in class this past week. I practiced hard to acquire this skill for my Doctor Who paper: Doctor Who - Humanity's Fairy Godfather or Prince Charming? I gave my paper to a packed audience (it was a small room, but packed with Doctor Who fans) who all applauded my feat of skill and laughed in the right places. It's all you can really ask for.

I saw many fantastic panels. My only moment of horror was when someone linked the word 'wholesome' with 'YA lit'. Still, for the writers, there was a terrific panel on establishing an online persona with the point that agents and publishers do now google perspective authors, looking for a public presence. If you are looking at a writing career, it's something to consider. There were great panels on the future of electronic publishing, book covers, paranormal romance, YA literature etc. There was a very funny keynote by Kim Stanley Robinson, during which he interviewed himself. There were many steampunk costumes, confirming that steampunk is enjoying a particularly high profile now, and the Girl Genius stand, with authors signing, sold out in a mere couple of hours. Girl Genius is one of the fantastic examples of how creative teams are working outside the industry and making cult fandom work for them - financially too. The financial aspect had always been the tricky part.

We had a great cohort of Monash students giving papers in the academic stream, all to good effect. I haven't permission at the moment to give their names - okay, I haven't asked for permission yet - but kudos to them all.

Right, now I'm going to try to wrestle my other shoe from my dog and try to get over this cough, which has been frightening both the dog and my students for the past week.

Little Bits

2010-09-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday before heading off to AussieCon 4, I caught a couple of interesting pieces in The Guardian.

Item One

A great interview with Terry Pratchett on the release of the last Tiffany Aching book (I admit here that the Tiffany Aching books are my favourites and I want to believe in the Nac Mac Feegles more than I want to believe in fairies). Here's an excellent snippet from the interview:

"Pratchett knows there are strict rules about making things so dark when you are writing for children – 'a child's instinctive grasp of narrativium [sic] is that this has got to end well' – but he is also very clear that, while his witch can take away physical pain (she draws it out into a ball, then dumps it), she cannot, and will not, take loss, sadness, or grief."

Aside from finding 'narrativium' to be an excellent word, I find it odd that this persists: that explanation of darkness in children's literature is required. Children's literature is built upon dark fears and dangerous things. Pratchett has it right. The trick of children's literature is that it will end well. There are ways to fight the darkness. The essence - indeed, the importance - of children's literature is this exploration of the overcoming of the darkness, whether it be in the slaying of dragons or the ability to face and manage depression. Some writers forget this. It's not about the darkness and the fear. It's about overcoming it.

Reading Positions

I also found Alison Flood's blog on an AbeBooks survey about the positions in which we read to be entertaining. Let's be honest, being involved in the study of literature, I read a lot. Position is important.

There are some areas of academic study that look at how people read - the physicality of reading can be just as interesting as the intellectual side of the exercise. If you're interested in pursuing that line of study, do get in touch with Monash's Centre for the Book.

***

I had a good day yesterday. First, Neil Gaiman and Shaun Tan at the Melbourne Writers Festival. Shaun Tan sketched on site a story about an angry moose in space. There were also technical difficulties bringing Neil Gaiman, sleepy but via live feed, to the session and he disappeared periodically, reemerging looking benignly upon us while drinking tea (the large screen above the stage had a rather curious effect in that respect - he was a little like the Cheshire Cat). The panel agreed that adults can read picture books. It's sad we still have to agree to this.

Then it was off to AussieCon 4 (the World Con). I caught the session, "Border Crossing: YA authors writing for adults and vice versa" with Bec Kavanagh, Marianne de Pierres, Pamela Freeman and Cory Doctorow. Curiously, the distinction between adult and young adult persists in terms of sex and swearing. Curious, since I'm pretty sure most young adults know about as much about sex and swearing as adults, yet there is still a perception it needs to be censored from YA and that this is the basis of the genre definition. Of course, it isn't really and the panel discussed this. There is a growing recognition that adults also read YA literature (and, in fact, not all adult books have sex and swearing in them, which is, essentially, the assumption if you turn the perception around). YA and children's literature does suffer from definitions that place undue stress upon intended readerships, readerships that are increasingly understood to be far more diverse than indicated. Much work is yet to be done on how these genres can be defined beyond readership age and censorship of sex and swearing. Likewise, these definitions are coloured by 'anticipated risk factors' where publishers and librarians and teachers etc think ahead to what might be considered unsuitable. Naturally, this leads to greater conservatism and is problematic for the boundary-pushing activity of the genre.

I also did like Cory Doctorow's remark that the prevalence of fan fiction is a sign that the writing is working - the characters go on living in the readers' minds, having further adventures.

How Did I Get Here?

2010-09-01T02:55:00.001-07:00

This morning I was inspired by Wil Wheaton's blog post, "You may ask yourself, 'well, how did I get here?'"

The truth is, I've been feeling pretty positive about things that are happening around me, too. I have great students and I really enjoy teaching the kinds of literature I have the opportunity to teach and my postgrads are working diligently (mostly!) on fascinating projects.

Tomorrow I'm seeing Neil Gaiman (via skype) and Shaun Tan at the Melbourne Writer's Festival before heading over to Aussiecon 4. Having never been to a convention, I'm intrigued and psyched about the experience. I'll be there for a few days. Right now I'm refining my list of sessions to attend - I'm trying to catch some of the Cory Doctorow, Shaun Tan, Ellen Datlow and Paul Cornell sessions, among others. Oh, and on Monday I'm giving a paper in the academic stream. It'll be on Doctor Who and fairy tale. That's about all I can promise at this stage... as I feverishly attempt to finish it. Somewhat literally. I'm really hoping the loss of voice in this morning's class was not a bad sign.

In further positive news, it looks like there will be a fairy tale unit among the offerings for Monash's Winter Semester at Prato. That's right. Next year, I may very well be teaching fairy tales in Tuscany. Fairy tales, gelati, Italian shoes... dreams do come true.

Gustave Doré (adapted)

Keep an eye open for it!

But how did I get to this good place? The truth is, I spent the greater part of my student life avoiding becoming an academic. The irony is not lost upon me. I even ran away to London, where I became a temp from Chiswick (just like Donna Noble), in order to avoid becoming an academic.

It didn't last. I did a MLitt part time, while coming to the realisation that I didn't like working in corporations, and one morning before work, I went down to the food court for a coffee and toast and was planning an essay on the 'Beauty and the Beast' narrative in Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I remember exactly where it happened. I was crossing the road afterward, on my way to the office, and thinking about how Mr Darcy and Beast are pretty much one and the same thing, and it struck me. I could make a career out of thinking these things.

It took me another few years and a few degrees to realise that fairy tale really was 'my thing' (I know, I know... it was obvious from the start... I was blinkered), but now that I have, I'm no longer avoiding being an academic.

The trick, most will agree, is to find a job doing what you love. I love working with fairy tales. So even on days when I'm tired and grouchy because I've been ploughing through marking and paperwork, there is a little voice in the back of my head, saying over and over again:

"You have a career where you spend your time thinking about cats in boots, glass slippers, magic blue boxes, prince charming and falling stars."

Student Conferences

2010-08-29T15:32:00.001-07:00

I'm a great fan of student conferences and we've had lots of involvement from students in the two small conferences I've helped to run (one on Harry Potter back in 2007 and one on vampires in 2008). So, this video, "How to get a lecture hall full of people to make Chewbacca sounds" ignited that enthusiasm once again. We are thinking of running a conference on female superheroes, but we still have some assessing to do of plans.

I went to see Joss Whedon's keynote at the Melbourne Writers Festival on Friday night and it was brilliant. There were Jayne hats in the audience, which always makes me glad, and a general buzz of enthusiasm and goodwill and Joss Whedon is a terrific speaker. I did like his advice to those who want a writing career: "Write." Best advice in the world. He also spoke to Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse etc - of course - and mentioned in passing the possibility of writing a novel. I want Joss Whedon to write a novel. He was introduced as god, but did add that he didn't believe in himself.

Leading on from the Melbourne Writers Festival is AussieCon 4. It's a busy couple of weeks. Which may account for the especially illegible writing I've been committing lately on graded essays.

Fairy Tale window shopping

2010-08-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

When I spotted this cute, red vintage suitcase, I just hoped the little girl wasn't going to meet a wolf.

International Read Comics in Public day - August 28

2010-08-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of day I can get behind! If only the new Fables volume was out in time.

And if you're still looking for things to mark your spot in a book with, here's some great printable bookmarks from Wild Olive (via Craftzine.com). You'll note there's even a bacon bookmark! Now, what were we saying about not leaving bacon and eggs in your books?

Misuse of the English Language

2010-08-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

I wasn't taught grammar and spelling at school - well, other than the basics. I did learn about verbs and nouns and I participated in spelling tests. However, because I read a great deal, I developed strong writing skills and so, when the teacher would gather the class for an intensive session on grammar, I'd be sent to the back of the room with a good book. I was perceived as possessing good skills already. There was no need to meddle with that.

Not that I always employ good grammar. (Shhhhh.)

However, I am always amused by the insistence on right and wrong ways to use the English language. The history of the English language seems to suggest that right and wrong ways are always changing, always evolving, making any certainty uncertain at best.

I wish I was in London to catch the 'Evolving English' exhibition at the British Library. Mark Brown at the Guardian picked up on one of the great exhibits: "If u really r annoyed by the vocabulary of the text generation, then a new exhibition at the British Library should calm you down. It turns out they were doing it in the 19th century – only then they called it emblematic poetry, and it was considered terribly clever." I hesitate to provide this information to students in English Lit. Think of the potential chaos if they all start using text language on exams and insist they're really just being super clever and using 'emblematic poetry'.

I'm not even smiling a bit as I write that. (There is more to emblematic poetry than its similarity to a text message, in any case.)

I always find Jasper Fforde to be my favourite go-to-person for grammar and spelling related issues - I like the idea of Verbisoids, Noun Fish and Converiblators.

In the end, though, it is important to get the language right according to current standards. It's something we all learn as we pursue careers in English Literature. Understanding how language works and is utilised is part of our business.

Gratuitous Shoe Blog

2010-08-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

I was admiring someone else's gratuitous shoe photo in my Twitter stream today and they were nice enough to direct me to the Rivers online shop to get myself a pair. Don't they look like fairy tale shoes?

And they're red, which, as anyone knows, is the key colour of fairy tale footwear. Many have pondered the significance of the red. Is it aristocratic? It's often associated with the nobility - Louis XIV delighted in high red heels. Is it sexual? It's often associated with female sexuality, in particular, and carries many a Freudian Slip-per (sorry, I groaned at that too). Or is it simply that there is something enticing about red shoes? Many friends confirm that wearing red shoes makes you happy and confident. And how many have read Andersen's 'The Red Shoes,' and yet come away wanting red shoes? Despite the fate of the red-shoe-loving heroine?

What Authors Write In Their Books

2010-08-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

I just found a blog post about the selling of David Markson's library. Markson recently passed away and his collection of - often heavily notated - books was given to a bookstore to sell. As Alex Abramovich notes, this was a"shock, in part, because Markson’s work relied so heavily on other books". Needless to say, then, the notes he makes in those books provide potentially valuable insights into his own fiction. Now they're being sold rather randomly and scholarship may lose potential insights into his writer's mind altogether.

I discovered the blog post thanks to a Guardian blog by Sam Jordison. Once again, it goes to the topic of what happens now since you can't leave things in eBooks, but I liked the response of 'freepoland': "It is important to leave things in books [...] I leave bus tickets, cinema tickets, invitations, letters, ideas notes and all sorts; that way your book collection becomes a diary or set of random aide memoires. [...] I do draw the line at leaving a fried egg or bacon as bookmarks." I agree, egg and bacon may not be quite the things you should leave in books, although I think the odd pasta sauce stain can be found in some people's books. I'm not naming names.

Fashion and Literature

2010-08-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

I loved this slideshow of the best dressed in literature - although, seriously, how could they leave out Jane Austen's heroes and heroines? Or better yet, Georgette Heyer's nonesuches and nonpareils? Or, best by far, D'Aulnoy's Finette Cendron, who can reduce a Prince to a pining wreck of a man over her red velvet slipper embroidered in pearls?

Books that Animate

2010-08-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

Last post I mentioned again the Alice App. This morning on boing boing, video from the Smithsonian of The Animated Circus Book.

I'd love to see more of these. In fact, there is a project in old books with movable parts and how readily they lend themselves to contemporary technology. After all, the movable parts aimed at imitating life, the very cornerstone of animation, which is what we see on film and now on applications like Alice. The medias are not in competition. They're striving for the same kind of effects.

Marking your place

2010-08-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

After seeing a selection of fantastic bookmarks with noses and hound dogs (you can download a template here) via Craftzine.com, I got to thinking about how we mark our place in a book.

This week , I took my iPad with the Alice App (which is brilliant - I'm particularly fond of the floating cupcake page) to Honours class. Since I was taking the iPad and felt a little lazy about also taking my well-thumbed copy of Through the Looking-Glass, I downloaded the free eBook and took that instead (the use of eBooks will be tricky in terms of citation and reference, though I have to admit that finding early editions of Jane Austen on Google Books is exciting and may alter how we consider scholarly editions). However, there was one catch. Each time there was something I wanted to refer to, I had no worn page, no aging post-it note, no penciled scribbling to go by. I was without the marks of my previous readings.

Apps on iPads and Kindles etc are catching up. There are apps so that you can highlight and notate pdf documents. There are bookmarks in iBook. Yet, how often do we find our favourite place in a book by feel - by touch, in effect? There will be spots along the spine where the construction of the book itself has become accustomed to being opened and has consequently adjusted itself. Or has simply fallen apart. I have a copy of Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades that has finally given up and reverted to a pile of loose pages and tattered cardboard covers. Yet, I won't give that copy up. It contains my first reading experience of Heyer. It's wrapped up in ribbon and still read.

Will the iPad contain our first reading experiences so well? Even with electronic bookmarks and highlighted passages?

I do enjoy the iPad, despite the splash a recent survey caused. It's easy to use, it makes it easier to read lots of pdf articles and to search through Google Books (incidentally, if you do need a page from a Google Book, you can always screen cap. and then print that image), and it's suitable for quick typing and watching downloaded videos. I'm a fan. I'm currently debating whether to download Chuck on the iPad for weekend viewing.

On a final note, the academic programme for AussieCon 4 is coming together and there are quite a few Monash names associated. It should be good!

Book Makeovers

2010-07-23T16:59:00.000-07:00

This week in Honours class (Writing the Child), the topic of Enid Blyton 'updating' came up. Oddly enough, today in The Guardian, there's an article about just this, specially, 'Enid Blyton's Famous Five Get 21st Century Makeover'. Alison Flood notes: "The intention, said Hodder, is to make the text "timeless" rather than 21st century, with no modern slang – or references to mobile phones – introduced."

Of course, replacement terms like "traveller" and "bookworm" are still very 21st century and the original terms of "tinker" and "awfully swotter" are half the fun of reading Blyton.

Libraries Are Cool

2010-07-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

At least, it looks like libraries might be, to quote the article title, "the next big pop culture wave" (I followed the links via boing boing). Linda Holmes produces a great article, here, about how in a greener, more geek-friendly world, libraries are on the cusp of becoming really popular again. And, actually, I agree with her. There's a world of good to be said about libraries.

The Monash libraries, for example, now stock the deluxe editions of Hellboy and you can borrow all of Neil Gaiman's audio books, a host of Buffy and film DVDs. We do have a number of very friendly, rather brilliant librarians on the ground who are helping us stock up on our favourite authors and multimedia. If you have any suggestions for them, just let me know. And don't forget to go and check out the library catalogues - you'll be surprised what's lurking there between the more dry scholarly hardbacks.

The Slush Pile

2010-07-16T17:36:00.001-07:00

I'm in a little bit of a post-conference-attendance stupor. "To Deprave and Corrupt" was an outstanding conference with kudos to Simone Murray and Patrick Spedding from Monash's Centre for the Book. It was one of those conferences which inspired you to arrive home at the end of a long day and yet still switch on the computer to do just a bit of research. I'm finding myself more and more intrigued by the idea of research into who really was reading fairy tales in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. So many assumptions about reading habits are proving false in light of new evidence as old records become more readily accessible with digitalisation.

But for today, I'll leave the blog with this site, Slush Pile Hell, "a grumpy literary agent wades through query fails." Learn from the mistakes of others.

Slow Reading

2010-07-15T01:32:00.000-07:00

I've just been at the BSANZ Conference, "To Deprave and Corrupt: Hidden and Censored Books," today and have been inspired by some great papers, but also horrified by the email that has piled up while I'm listening to such great papers...

Which brings me to an article I was just reading about, indeed, slow reading (Patrick Kingsley in The Guardian). There is much debate about the impact of the internet on our capacity to concentrate as we read. I do think there have always been people with shorter attention spans and those who skim and scan. The technology has simply caught up with them. I'm not entirely convinced students are reading less than previously, particularly taking into account that more and more students are juggling study with longer hours of work and other activities. Yet, I do find the notion of slow reading appealing and important. Sometimes we do rush too much and we don't stop to really absorb and think about the text we're reading. As with all things, balance is required.

Melbourne Writers Festival

2010-07-14T04:55:00.001-07:00

A couple of events, in particular, caught my eye. A keynote by Joss Whedon and a session with Shaun Tan complete with video link to Neil Gaiman.

Hypothetical Books and Real Conferences

2010-07-12T19:50:00.001-07:00

I've been enjoying this blog series of The Hypothetical Library. With Jennifer L. Knox, Charlie Orr has come up with a YA book, Perplexed by a Porpoise. I like Orr's remark about the hypothetical YA series: "In other words, like all good YA books, they would teach the kids of today the values and skills they will need to navigate the 21st century." Of course, I wouldn't limit that to YA books. Part of the problem of focusing on the pedagogical aspect of children's and YA literature is that we forget that ostensibly adult books likewise provide readers with the values and skills to navigate life in whichever century they happen to be. In fact, sometimes I think the pedagogical aspect of novels for adults is ever more important.

Incidentally, this week, the BSANZ conference, "To Deprave and Corrupt: Hidden and Censored Books," begins. There's a couple of great panels on Friday about children's and YA literature, one of which I'll be chairing.

What do academics do on holiday?

2010-06-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

Apparently, they go to Narnia.

Actually, I've just been in New Zealand, which, in effect, involves traveling through Narnia and Middle Earth. In fact, I've been riding horses through Middle Earth's many lands. One of my good friends even managed to get her hands on a Lord of the Rings horse, Sam, for one of the treks. He rode with the Rohirrim long ago. One of my horses, on the other hand, rode with the Barbarians in Hercules.

It's difficult to be in a place like New Zealand and not wonder what the Inklings would have made of it. It's a perfect setting for their tales. Likewise, physically experiencing such landscapes, whether on horseback, foot, or in a bus, provides one with fresh insight into these epic adventures. And a wish that one could make a case for field trips in literary studies. Imagine trekking all day and meeting around a camp fire to discuss the Tale of Tinúviel?

New Books

2010-06-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

Needless to say, the news of this book's release made my day.

Catching up on reading

2010-06-11T22:01:00.001-07:00

I've been catching up on Elaine Showalter's Teaching Literature (2003), a book I've been meaning to read for a while. Recently, as you might have noticed, I've found myself thinking more and more about how we define the types of texts dealt with in the study of English Literature. Showalter reflects on this too, repeating an anecdote from Terry Eagleton:

On the other hand, Eagleton admits, literature often uses a heightened and excessive language. "If you approach me at a bus stop," he quips, "and murmur 'Thou still unravished bride of quietness,' then I know I am in the presence of the literary." Of course, if your bus stop is not in Oxford, and if you are not a teacher of literature, the Keatsian murmurings that alert Terry Eagleton to the presence of the literary may well alert you to the presence of a nut-case. (21)

I love an academic text with a sense of humour!

It also made me think about how a quote from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, "It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak," had been misattributed to Shakespeare online. Amusing, yes. Upsetting? Not really. I can see the logic behind the error.

Science and the Arts

2010-06-11T05:56:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking quite a bit about how geek culture is associated with the sciences, but not so much with the arts and disciplines like English Literature; and about why this is a pity, because science often draws on the material we work with on a day to day basis.

For example, scientists have named a pheromone after Mr. Darcy. I first read about it on Jane Austen's World, but the original article is available at BMC Biology. The naming may be tongue-in-cheek, much like naming a possible tenth planet for the solar system 'Xena,' but I like the idea that a good understanding of Jane Austen assists scientific thought.

Recently, I also came across a tweet that lead me to a BBC project, Jane Austen's iPod. It's a terrific idea. More and more contemporary writers are sharing lists of the music they're listening to while they write. Meg Cabot just gave her playlist for Insatiable. There may be a research project or two in the music authors write to!

And not just authors. Academics sometimes write to music too. I'm one of those who find it difficult to focus in silence (it's why I won't often be found tapping away at a paper in my office - my music would drive colleagues insane). Studying fairy tale, of late, I've been led in the oddest musical directions. Just the other day, I was researching male fashion and wound up investigating 'fop rock,' which led me to Adam Ant and his hit, 'Prince Charming.' The video clip is very very odd, but does indeed draw on the fairy tale in new and interesting ways!

Fairy Tale Novels

2010-06-02T03:38:00.000-07:00

There are a host of novels based on fairy tale. Too many for me to really explore. But I was reading about Jessica Day George's Princess of Glass on Sur La Lune's blog and I couldn't resist finding a copy that instant. I admit, it was predominantly because I read that it includes knitting patterns and I'm fascinated by knitting. But also because George reflects: "Then it occurred to me that dancing in glass slippers might possibly be just as bad: would the glass bend?" As I've contended with students, glass slippers are just silly. Much more likely are the red velvet slippers embroidered with pearls in Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy's Cinderella tale, 'Finette Cendron.'

Why Studying Fairy Tale is Awesome: A Seminar Paper

2010-05-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

On June 1st, I'm giving a paper entitled 'Why Studying Fairy Tale is Awesome' as part of the English Lit. seminar series. It'll be on at midday in the ECPS library, level 7, Menzies Building, Clayton campus. Please do come along if you're interested in fairy tales - everyone is most welcome.

I'll be talking a bit about the field of fairy tale scholarship and the changes that are taking place in the field, including the impact of research into popular novels, comics and television, and then I'll give everyone a rundown of my own research. It'll be a little like those school presentations, 'what I did on holiday,' except I'll be talking about what I've been up to on research leave!

I was in two minds about the title - did it sound like I was trying to be 'too cool,' which can be incredibly painful? However, a random poll of my students reassured me that studying fairy tale is awesome and it should be stated.

The Fan Fiction Debate

2010-05-10T17:22:00.000-07:00

There's a great piece over at i09 by Catherynne M. Valente about authors and their response to fan fiction, in which she declines the urge to "holler about fan fiction being evil when I've made a name for myself at least in part by retelling fairy tales."

Anyone who knows and understands fairy tales will usually feel pretty comfortable with fan fiction. Fan fiction and fairy tale operate on a very similar basis. The best fairy tales don't simply retell earlier tales - they fill in gaps, twist the plots, upend characters, indulge in the odd bit of wish-fulfillment or revenge, and incorporate opportune bits from other tales.

Fan fiction is simply part of what makes the world of storytelling go around. It's not out of bounds to claim works like Geraldine Brooks' March are fan fiction. There are good and bad examples, after all. There is always a little trickiness around copyright - happily earlier fairy tale tellers didn't worry too much about that - and this has created angst and over-caution among some authors. It isn't that incredible in light of what can happen in the courts. Angst is probably also due to the reality that authors can access fan fiction thanks to the internet. Fan fiction was always being written, but the 'source' authors didn't generally see it until the proliferation of fan fiction sites. Curiously, television writers seem more apt at accepting and absorbing fan fiction, perhaps because much, even most, fan fiction is generated by serialised storytelling. Shows like Supernatural actively play to their fan base and you'll see the occasional wink to the fan fiction trends. Television shows also tend to have writing teams, with different writers working on the same stories, characters and arcs, pulling them this way and that as the series evolves. There is a different sense of proprietary rights involved, one a little more friendly to the generation of fan fiction. And most scriptwriters do spec scripts, which aren't a world away from fan fiction, either.

For myself, I think fan fiction is evidence of engaged, active, creative readers, readers who in turn become writers. I have nothing against having more writers in the world.

This morning's post brough to you by the Bronte sisters

2010-05-05T17:06:00.001-07:00

This is a fantastic fake ad for Bronte sisters action figures. I'd tell you about the coolest part, but that would be a spoiler.

I actually grew up thinking women 'owned' the novel. We once discussed in a women's writing class whether we'd noticed the gender of the writers we'd been reading up to that point. The outcome was intriguing. Most of the writers I thought of were women. The odd Dickens or Eddings, but even now, if I glance along the shelves, where there is a concentration of novels by the same author, it's far more often a female author (although there is a slight shift since I've been adding comics to the mix... where are the female comic book authors? I'll have to pursue that).

Students went home and had a look at their shelves and came back with all kinds of insights about their own reading and whether or not they'd noticed or even cared about the gender of the writers they'd been reading. It's worth reflection. We talk a lot about gender discrimination and its impact on literature, and our own reading is a useful place to start.

'One Book, One Twitter'

2010-05-04T17:54:00.001-07:00

If you know my curriculum-setting habits, you'll know I smiled at the first choice for the 'One Book, One Twitter' initiative (you can read about in here in The Guardian). The choice is for the big, rambling Neil Gaiman novel, American Gods.

It's not an easy or simple choice, so I'm fascinated that it won. The field included literary and science fiction heavy weights, too. In reading about the 'one book, one city' efforts that spurred 'one book, one twitter' on, what is exciting is that the novels aren't predictable. Apart from perhaps To Kill A Mockingbird in Chicago. Yes, I enjoy the novel, but it regularly crops up on 'to read' lists. From Russia With Love, chosen by Brighton, doesn't.

Genre Definition

2010-05-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Lincoln Michel is thinking about genre labels in The Faster Times. The article underscores the difficulty of working with definitions in terms of genre. Genre is slippery. It is meant to be. Solid definitions or labels simply shouldn't stick.

Neil Gaiman talking about fairy tale

2010-04-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

It's here. It makes you wish there were radio interviews available with earlier fairy tale tellers. Imagine the potential transformation in scholarship.

The Library Thing

2010-04-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

Today in the mail, I received my copy of She & Him Volume Two. I had downloaded a couple of the songs on iTunes, but I do still like a really good CD in physical form, particularly if I like the artwork. And I do love the feel of the cardboard-packaged CDs in preference to their jewel-cased compatriots.

I opened the CD and found a little pocket with the insert, all done up to look like an old-fashioned library index card.

That's right - libraries no longer use such index cards. At least, the majority of libraries now work on digital systems, so your book is swished through a scanner and you can't snoop at previous borrowings and due dates.

In fact, I sometimes wonder if younger readers at all remember the days when library cards were in use? Which makes it particularly curious that many children's books likewise reproduce the nostalgia of library ephemera. Take Shaun Tan's Tales from Outer Suburbia, seen above. The borrowers' slip records all the acknowledgements neatly. Emily Gravett's Wolves likewise reproduces such nostalgic touches (her website is worth a look). Such authors/illustrators incorporate the ephemera of snail mail and used books, deliberately aging their pristine works.

If you pop over to the Jingles for Juniors exhibition at the Monash Rare Books Collection, you can see an earlier example in the Japanese fairy tale series by B.H. Chamberlain et al., 1888, displayed.

Literary/horror Mash-Ups Continued...

2010-04-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

I've been teaching Little Women in the Children's Literature unit. So, without further preamble, let me pass along news of the imminent release of Little Vampire Women. For some reason, I'm finding this one particularly intriguing. Perhaps in part because I think it would delight Jo March. Remember, she did like penning the odd salacious tale, a habit she had in common with Alcott herself, who wrote romantic thrillers for the magazine trade (a selection are available in this volume).

I also think Amy March would make an excellent vampire, although she would continue to have issues about her nose shape.

Now I shall eagerly await the first grad. student who feels the urge to understand this current phenomenon.

Jane and Facebook

2010-04-24T18:02:00.001-07:00

It's a little eerie how well Pride & Prejudice can be adapted to Facebook. However, it is to be expected. I do suspect that Jane Austen would have loved social networking sites. She would use every scrap of the page in her correspondence and was always hungry for gossip and eager to pass it along.

The Future of Books Continues...

2010-04-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

It's no secret I really want an iPad. And I want it so that I can read books on it. I'm curious to see how the technology will work and what it will mean for my reading experience. I love books. I love embossed and leather covers and pages that crinkle under my fingers. Yet I also love reading online and discover myself growing impatient when a book I want to explore isn't available for preview on Google books.

In light of technologies like those presented in the iPad, the future of publishing is being actively debated. I also just noticed it's being debated in the future. Today's the 21st and this New Yorker article is currently cited as the 26th.

To the writers

2010-04-19T17:42:00.001-07:00

i09 features a useful post from Charlie Jane Anders, "4 Danger Signs to Search For, Before Sending Off Your Novel." It's good, solid, practical advice, although I tremble to imagine it applied to this blog.

Word of warning, the blog is written very quickly in between other tasks or it simply wouldn't happen. (There, that covers me, right?)

As I was copying and pasting in the link and considering a title for the blog post, though, I did initially hit upon 'to the creative writers.' And it struck me - why do we talk of creative writing? Surely all writing is creative (bad or otherwise)? When I set creative writing tasks for assessment, I always feel a little twitch of discomfort, as though it implies the critical task is not creative or vice-versa.

My creativity is constantly taxed in scholarly writing. I'm still inordinately proud of my observation that Voldemort concealed his identity in "an act of anagram" in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Drawing the reader in, amusing the reader, is just as important to me in terms of scholarship as in terms of creativity. The better I can capture the sense of the novel or play or short story that I'm writing on, the better I can explain how it works and why it is significant.

This also goes to the vexing problem that plagues academics of my interests. How can you write about vampire slayers, windy warthogs, little green gnomes etc in a serious scholarly work without it sound(ing - proof reading fail) just a bit ridiculous? The only answer is in extending your creativity in how you write about such matters.

Shakespeare wouldn't really roll in his grave...

2010-04-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

...even if I simultaneously wince and laugh at this take on his work, "Such Tweet Sorrow." It's a contemporary, 'live' performance of a rewritten Romeo and Juliet, produced in a partnership of Mudlark and the RSC, and taking place on Twitter. It's only just started and the story will continue to unfold over the coming weeks. Ferris Bueller has already been referenced - never a bad thing.

It's a clever idea, though there are many characters from many tales currently sending out their tweets, including Richard Castle, whose novel, Heat Wave, I just finished. It's a fun, cheesy piece of writing. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fans make better scholars

2010-04-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

Reading Henry Jenkin's comments on "reducing the world's suck" on Boing Boing this morning, I liked his wrap up of fans: "a community of readers, who compare notes, pool knowledge, and thus can deal with the scope and complexity of rich television narratives." However much we try to fight it, academia in the Humanities is still largely a solo experience. Conferences and symposiums help. Collaborating on articles and books brings us together. Yet these activities have to constantly defy a system that frequently keeps us apart. Often, if a few colleagues are found in the staff room, we remark on how unusual it is now to have an opportunity to share coffee and talk. Competing teaching schedules, individual deadlines, supervision and administrative meetings etc conspire against communal scholarship.

Yet I've been running reading groups and I constantly find these intellectually stimulating and reviving. Academics can work like fans. In fact, if you look at our rich history, we often do. And I'm not even thinking simply of the Inklings, who'd meet up at the Bird and Baby for Beer and debate.

In particular, as I'm researching 'the book', it occurs more and more to me that there are simply too many tales, too many variations, for one individual. Fairy tale requires a communal approach. It always has.

Incidentally, there were a couple of other interesting pieces on Boing Boing today. I like the idea they may have discovered evidence of the Doctor (they say it's a hipster, but the costume design of the Doctor has always been a little odd like that). And, now that I'm actively counting down to getting an iPad, this made my day. It's the little things. And another cup of coffee.

Stitching Alice

2010-04-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, I have a fascination for the collaborations of craft and tale-telling, so I loved this round-up of Alice embroidery designs on Feeling Stitchy. I particularly like the simple stitching on red linen in this design.

Of course, you can't always go passed the original.

(Later Note: A friend just showed me this. Alice for the iPad. I need an iPad now.)