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Kj’s Corner: Mythopoeia, Monsters and Jesus Oh My!

Kj — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:27:10 +0000

For my second Kj’s Corner in “Theology & the Artistic Impulse” I explored the concept of Mythopoeia as described primarily by George MacDonald, JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis. For part of the lecture, (screenshots below) I also used a scene from the documentary Monster Camp (see the trailer below) and the preview for the documentary We Are Wizards (also below), to look at some cultural examples of how we attempt to inhabit the narratives that either enchant our lives or drive us to escape our lives. Thanks again Chelle for the opportunity to teach a bit, and thanks to the class for your gracious engagement and conversation around my little corners.

(This image is “Lucy & the Lampost” by Bridget Beth Collins. I have a copy hanging on my wall.)

Suggested reading on Mythopoeia:

C.S. Lewis: “On Stories” & “On Three Ways of Writing for Children”

George MacDonald: “The Imagination” & Lillith

JRR Tolkein: “”On Fairy Stories” & The Lord of the Rings (duh)

Kristin Johnson: “Tolkein’s Mythopoesis” in Tree of Tales

The Christian Imagination edited by Leland Ryken

And That Makes 108

Kj — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:08:48 +0000

I just turned in my final paper of graduate school. I took fewer classes this spring and summer. The “extra” time went to finishing my integrative project (#1 on the list) and being a research assistant for “Theology & the Artistic Impulse.”

Also, I did some research that spanned more than one class, hence two papers that look at the same thing (Jane Eyre) from two different perspectives.

So here’s 2010, the last of these oh so listy of lists.

“WHY ARE YOU APOLOGIZING FOR BLEEDING?”
Confronting The Evangelical Embrace Of Stephenie Meyer’s
Twilight Saga

“GOD DID NOT GIVE ME MY LIFE TO THROW AWAY”
Reading Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre As Theological Articulation of Salvation in Light of Women’s Experience:
An Introduction

CHARLOTTE BRONTË, THEOLOGIAN:
Charting The Constructive Theology Of Jane Eyre

THE SHADOWS THAT GLORY REVEALS:
Spiritual Formation Through The Fiction Of C.S. Lewis

[SUBJECT] TO AN UNKNOWN GOD:
Postmodern Philosophy And The Transcending Of Our Human Claims On The Transcendent God

Kj’s Corner: Real Presences & Adaptation

Kj — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:38:16 +0000

This summer I had the opportunity to serve as research assistant to Dr. Chelle Stearns for her course on “Theology & the Artistic Impulse.” This meant I got to give two lectures on the class material. (At MHGS we don’t use student TA’s due to dual relationship concerns- so research assistant is a kind of newish thing). Struck with the utter surprise and amazingness of this opportunity, I sort of wondered out loud about it to Chelle, and her response was, that since I’m likely heading into academia moreso than ministry proper, it makes sense that as I got to practice pastoring in my program, I should also get a chance to try on teaching before I graduate. I guess its a good sign that the thought of having two whole hours of class to do with what I wish felt like receiving a ticket to DisneyWorld. Frankly- i would have loved even more time, but two lectures was PLENTY work for this crazy final term. So twice I got to facilitate classtime, focusing on any aspect of the readings- through whatever lenses I felt like bringing to it. Chelle dubbed the time “Kj’s Korner.”

1st lecture: The week’s reading was George Steiner’s “Real Presences,” an incredibly difficult but fascinating text. The amazon review gives a good idea of what I had to work with: “Steiner asserts moral and metaphysical issues are the basis of all art and that our experience of meaning in music, painting and literature presupposes the existence of God as a “necessary possibility.” Dense, difficult, rewarding, this passionately argued essay ranges fluently over aesthetics, linguistics, philosophy, post-structuralism, the range of Western culture.”

As I do with all things, I read, asking myself, “What else does this bring to mind? Where do I see this applied in a way that makes sense to me?” I quickly landed on Charlie Kaufman’s film Adaptation. I used quotes from the book to explore scenes from the film and scenes from the film to explore concepts from the book, etc. Here’s some images my my lecture, as well as the opening scene of the film.

Do You Remember?: Exile, Identity and Prince Caspian

Kj — Mon, 31 May 2010 04:01:38 +0000

For the C.S. Lewis class, four of us did a presentation on Prince Caspian. We focused on the novel’s theme of exile and return, viewed through the lens of Isaiah. Since I first read the book in 1999, I’ve been haunted by the image of the Penvensie children wandering around the ruins of a castle only to slowly realize its their former home of Cair Paravel, but somehow hundreds of years have passed. That feeling of being in a place that was once home, but is now completely unfamiliar or in ruins is resonant of other characters in the book who have been living exiled from their culture or identity. The tree spirits have gone dormant, the animals have gone wild and forgotten how to speak, or hidden their speech if they’ve not gone wild, dwarves have had to “pass” for men, and even the children have trouble recovering the memories of their Narnian identity.

We wanted to offer our classmates an aspect of this experience in the context of our own lives. We did this in three ways. First we completely demolished the classroom. As people entered the room, they had to sit amongst the ruins, or as some identified, the “war zone” remains of the classroom. Then, with many people on the floor next to turned over chairs and tables, we began by hearing portions of Isaiah 44, which in the context of the Narnia story and our sitting in the rubble of our classroom, held more potent meaning than I’d expected. Here’s a bit of the text.
Isaiah 44:21-28

21 Remember these things, O Jacob,and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. 22 I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. 23 Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel. 24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by myself spread out the earth; 25 who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns back the wise, and makes their knowledge foolish; 26 who confirms the word of his servant, and fulfills the prediction of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, “It shall be inhabited,” and of the cities of Judah, “They shall be rebuilt, and I will raise up their ruins”; 27 who says to the deep, “Be dry— I will dry up your rivers”; 28 who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd, and he shall carry out all my purpose”; and who says of Jerusalem, “It shall be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”

Then, still in the dark and destroyed classroom, we played this video.
(It had music but we can’t seem to get it to play).
It works best (is most emotionally manipulative) if you play some wordless soundtrack music with it. We used Max Richter.
And the video ends at 3:32, but the powerpoint continues after it.

The Caspian Experience from Kj Swanson on Vimeo.

Then we led a more formal presentation and discussion time, but as we spoke, two of our group members slowly returned to classroom to its proper shape, so by the time we were done, the room looked normal again, except that no one was sitting in their usual place. Everyone was spread out along the edges or in clumps at some tables. Many of us had been “exiled” by the disruption of the space.

Hard to say how much of our ideas came across in the presentation or even in this blog post, but we loved doing it. I realized in the process that this was probably my last group project ever at MHGS, and I loved getting to work with people I’d never partnered with before. I felt like I was the old timer getting to work with the energetic whippersnappers who will be at MHGS long after I’ve graduated. Kind of like old Professor Kirke getting to hear Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy tell about the world they found in the wardrobe. It was wonderful.

I Like Getting Paid in Gift Cards

Kj — Sat, 08 May 2010 06:36:48 +0000

Because then I “have” to buy stuff.

I did a few jobs for school that resulted in some Amazon.com money. Can’t wait till these folks show up at my door!

We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rules, Partners, Rivals
By Gillian Gill

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination
By Sandra M Gilbert & Susan Gubar

Sexual Shame: An Urgent Call to Healing
By Karen A. McClintock

How (Not) to Speak of God – Marks of the Emerging Church
By Peter Rollins

Slings & Arrows: the Complete Collection

It’s all pretty much research/resources- but oh so good to have my own copies!

Of Mice and Meals

Kj — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:08:55 +0000

Redwall by Brian Jacques

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Continuing in my process of reading books for young people that I neither read nor heard of as a young person, I’ve started the Redwall series. Actually, my friend Tucker holds Mossflower as one of the most influential books in his life, and I want to read that, but it comes after this first book, Redwall, so I read ths first.

It was sweet. Can’t say I was ever at a loss for what would happen next or which cranky bad guys would turn out to be good, or what monstrous villain would suffer a vicious death or which sweet mouse girl would marry the brave mouse hero, but the world of woodland creatures who inhabit castles, belong to mouse monk orders and gather dandelions for salads, was quite a reprieve from my graduate studies.

But putting the more-than-predictable plot aside, the true delight of this book is the descriptions of food and feasts the medieval woodland creatures create. I leave you with some incandescently hunger-arousing descriptions.

“Tender freshwater shrimp garnished with cream and rose leaves, deviled barley pearls in acorn puree, apple and carrot chews, marinated cabbage stalks steeped in creamed white turnip with nutmeg.”

View all my reviews >>

Today

Kj — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:35:19 +0000

I’m giving my 8 minute intro/overview of my Twilight paper at MHGS.

Quite a few people have asked to read the paper. I’m happy to email a copy to anyone who’s interested. Just let me know where to send it.

Cheers, Kj

2010 Pop Culture Conference Rundown

Kj — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:49:55 +0000

4 days, hundreds of professors, PhD/Grad/Undergraduate students and very short food breaks = the Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Association’s annual conference.

Ian Klein joined me in Albuquerque for another year of frying our brains with academic discourse on popular culture. We heard about 50 papers and drank a lot of smoothies. It was indescribably delightful.

Here’s the panels I attended and the papers I liked best (per panel- not overall):

Science Fiction & Fantasy 19: Battlestar Galactica and Narrative
Fave paper:
“I Came to Galactica to Tell a Story”: Battlestar Galactica and Transmedia Interactivity
Jennifer Fong, UCLA

Science Fiction & Fantasy: Twilight Fandom
Fave paper:
Undead Authors, Anne Rice, J.K. Rowling, and Stephenie Meyer Battle Roland Barthes on the Internet
Bridget R. Cowlishaw, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah

Science Fiction & Fantasy: Joss Whedon, Sexuality and Gender
Fave paper:
Anya’s “Disturbing Sex Talk”: Breaking the Pattern of Punished Female Sexuality in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Tamy Burnett, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Science Fiction & Fantasy: Sex and Violence in Twilight
(I presented on this panel)
Fave paper:
Rewriting the Byronic Hero: How the Twilight Saga Made “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know” Acceptable Teenage Fiction
Jessica Groper, Claremont Graduate University

Religion: Conservative Christianity and Culture
Fave paper:
Sacred and Sexular: Ann Veal in Arrested Development
Brandon Barnes, Texas A&M University

Computer Culture: Game Studies 7
Fave paper:
Beyond the Button: The Nintendo Wiimote Interface and its Implications for Embodiment, Performance and Play
David O’Grady, UCLA

Science Fiction & Fantasy: The Dangers of Twilight
Fave paper:
Un-Biting the Apple and Killing the Womb: Genesis, Gender and Gynocide in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga
Colleen Orihill, Cleveland State University

Science Fiction & Fanstasy: Whedon and Genre
Fave paper:
Firefly: Between the Noir Frontier and the Final Frontier
E. Chrlotte Stevens, york University and Ryerson University

American History & Culture: Rethinking Suburban Sense of Self: Identity and Memory in the Suburbs
Face paper:
Everything’s Bigger in Texas: Mega-Religion in Lone Star Suburbia
Charity R. Carney, Stephen F. Austin State University

Computer Culture: Game Studies 11
Fave paper:
America’s First Person Shooters: Violent Interactions with Historical Narratives
Harrison Gish, UCLA

Horror (Literary & Cinmenatic): “Torture Porn”
Fave paper:
It’s all Liv Tyler’s Fault!: Male Shame and Protective Failure in The Strangers
Glen Donnar, RMIT University, Melbourne

Horror (Literary & Cinemantic): Affective and Imaginary Machines of Horror
Fave paper:
Manufacturing Images: Allegories of the Factory in Tomb Raider
Craig Bernardini, Hostos Community College

Punk: Punk Literature Philosophically and Rhetorically
Fave paper:
Punk’s Not Dead, it’s Un-Dead: The Vampire Spike as Punk Rock Expression
Bryan L. Jones, Northeatern State University, Oklahoma

Computer Culture: Ethnography, Writing, Second Life, and Film
Fave paper:
The Sex Life in your Second Life: An Ethnological Study of Women as Sexual Objects in Second Life
Alexis Waters, Northeastern Illinois University

Science Fiction & Fantasy: Whedon and the Body
Fave paper: Ian, of course!
“I Like My Scars”: Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and the Narrative of Flesh
Ian Klein, Columbia University

Computer Culture: Theorizing Internet Forms
Fave paper:
“Wizards and Witchcraft in the Wired World”: Magical Thinking in Popular Culture
Nicholas Goodman, Northeastern State University

Talking Twilight, or am I…?

Kj — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:20:44 +0000

Powerpoint sneak peaks from my presentation for this year’s Southwest/Texas American & Pop Culture Association’s conference. Best week ever kicking off next Tuesday!

Oh the power of correlation

Adolescent Heroines and the Unexpected Epiphanies They Bring

Kj — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:23:49 +0000

Last Friday, six pages into Suzanne Collins Hunger Games, I had a revelation: I spent my entire adolescence reading about adults. I didn’t read The Chronicles of Narnia until my junior year of college. I read Little Women soon after. Madeline L’Engle’s Time Quartet was a college graduation gift I gave myself. A week and a half ago I finished Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. For some reason, be it lack of exposure or a subconscious resistance to reading “young adult” literature as a young adult, I don’t think I read a single book with a teenage protagonist in my teenage years, except a stray book here and there assigned by English teachers.

This being the case, I believe reading these books as an adult has had a paradigmatically different effect on me now than they would have at sixteen. Of course that’s not surprising, but what has surprised me is that I think they’ve hit me a lot harder and deeper reading at 30 instead of 15. While I dove into my (incredibly short if existent at all) winter school break hungry to read young adult fiction, I assumed it was a desire to immerse myself in tightly written narratives with fully contained worlds and mythologies. However, my first day reading Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games awoke me to the fact that maybe what I was really needing was to follow protagonists who were thirteen and sixteen. I’d like to be able to say that having been a teenager who read about the adult experience has made me into an adult who can enjoy books about the teenage experience, but I think its more accurate to say that my thirty-year-old self is trying to grapple with my conflicted adolescent past—trying to find the teenage feelings I managed to mostly evade as a teenager. Or maybe at this point in my life, about to complete graduate school, I feel like a teenager again, wondering where I’m supposed to go to finally start my real life.

Either way, spending the last three weeks with Lyra in The Golden Compass and Katniss in The Hunger Games, has unlocked spaces inside me I either did not know were there or had been carefully avoiding. It’s humbling to learn lessons from fictional teenagers, but it’s healing as well. Both Lyra and Katniss embody courageous abandon as well as deep innocence that grieve me to the extent of how foreign those things have always been to me. At the same time, they’ve reintroduced longings I had at that age that really have not changed much since then and may still be unmet. I thought I was reading to have my imagination awakened, but instead, I was forced to reflect on my reality. Like any great imaginative fiction, I found truth on the page, not fantasy.

When the first tears came 80 pages from the end of Philip Pulman’s trilogy, I had an instinctive urge to Tweet a self-deprecating joke about being jealous of fictional thirteen year olds’ ability to express their feelings, but thankfully, caught myself. Instead, I wept for the rest of the book. I don’t know if my thirteen year-old-self would have had the same response, but at thirty, maybe I finally feel able to listen to my own young girl’s voice, be sad with her, while still looking forward to all the things her life might possibly hold. I had no idea entering the world of juvenile fiction would mean entering grief. Now that I know, I have no choice but to keep reading. Hopefully Lyra and Katniss and Lucy and Jo and Meg Murray and the others will continue to be patient with me. Hopefully I will be as compassionate to myself as I am empathetic to them.