Tuesday's Overlooked A/V: A Gun for George

A Gun for George offers the new Walter Mitty for a 21st century.

Terry Finch is a frustrated pulp fiction author and eternal loner looking for brutal revenge on the mean streets of East Kent.

This short film offers a fascinating (and funny!) look at a few tropes that are instantly recognisable to any film fan. It has a vintage look, but takes place now(ish), deliberately mashing up past and present to embody those colliding impulses.

Hard-bitten, gritty, pulpy crime narratives: British television used to rule on this front, as Mr B has written about a few times here and there. It's a trend that's exploding again lately: tough, he-man grit, but it's often one that can seemingly only happen in fantasy -- either hedged around with nostalgia or set in an unquestioned past.

The appeal rests on the idea that average men, who once had the unquestioned assumption of male power and privilege, find that has been taken away or at least become complicated. Some blame the usual targets (women and minorities rather than patriarchy and capitalism), but these films and similar books show a world that many long for --  one with uncomplicated interactions where good triumphs over evil even if it has to bend the rules to do so (think Dirty Harry and Charles Bronson films). It's not purely a male fantasy.
 
However it has often been a genre without women, except as easily-discarded sex partners, dames to be rescued or mirrors for their manliness, and as well as one where the Other can be easily distinguished by visible markers (i.e. race or ethnicity). It's a genre I'm writing in a lot lately, so I'm intrigued by all this backward splashing of nostalgia and modernity. Sometimes it is deliberately set in the past (like my story "Chickens") but other times it's happening right now ("Bill is Dead"). It's about world building in either case: that's what a lot of mimetic fiction writers don't always get -- it's all about world building.* 

[Need I add that most of the writers I've met working in the genre are not like Terry Finch, fine gentlemen and ladies who play nice and prove generally kind and inclusive to everyone? Naah, you know that.]

Let me get back to the film (instead of writing what will probably be my next PCA presentation on gender and nostalgia in noir fiction judging by this >_<).  Yes, the film examines the place of the displaced 70s man of action. It's also hilarious! It's pure Dunning-Kruger in action (oh dear, another paper that wants to be written) because Terry Finch thinks he's really an awesome tough-guy writer and everything we see demonstrates that he is not.

East Kent Grit: what a lovely concept.

Best laugh perhaps comes when a doctor cautions him, "If you must write, do it away from the sick and the vulnerable." And his caravan! HAHAHAHA!

See the site for The Reprisalizer, Terry Fincher's pulp star ("Real Name: Bob Shuter"). While it's a bit neglected of late, it provides dead on, awesomely realistic creations of vintage pulpy goodness. The whole created world of Terry Finch shows such care and attention to detail. Wonderful!

See Todd's blog for the round-up of overlooked gems.

*One of the reasons I have to spend so much time getting my students to visualise the medieval world; without a lot of explanation, my students tend to see history as just now with a hat on (a funny medieval hat in that instance). A lot of mimetic fiction neglects world building and often readers assume they know the world in which a story takes place only to be brought up short when they stumble across something that doesn't fit their own experience.

Krampus and Digital Monks

Did the Krampus visit you last night or did Saint Nicholas fill your shoes with gifts? Happy Independence Day, Finland (let's have a little Värttinä for that).

My talk is today at the Moore Institute. It's an update of my keynote address from April; I wanted to hit a lot of the same issues, but I've also cut it a bit as well. Mostly the jokes: different audience. Not all of the jokes, of course. But I figure some of the offhand popular culture references won't travel well.

Writers: have you taken my survey about writing in the digital age yet?

No idea what kind of audience there'll be. Some friends have promised to show and there will be sandwiches. We'll see. And no, I didn't go through with my plan to graft a Guy Fawkes mask onto the Moore Institute logo for one slide. Coward.

Know-vember: Miss Wendy

You knew she would be here: the Patsy to my Edina, she of the big hair, former Elf-Queen (and survivor of many a medieval play), southern gal supreme, Mechademia Submissions editor, connoisseur of Jack Daniels and hostess of the Rosh Hashanah Ragin' Kegger and Toga Parties -- Miss Wendy! I am so happy to know that Miss Wendy will be in Ireland after Xmas and this island nation will never be the same again if we have anything to say about it. Wendy reminded me that we were together last New Year's Eve, too, when I visited her in the home of Faulkner. Ringing in another year -- where will we be in another year's time?! Who can say? :-)

1. What's the first thing you do upon waking in the morning?

Well, this morning I cursed out Pumpkin, my cat, who decided to howl, run laps around the house, and play with what I thought was not a noisy toy at 5:00 this morning (two hours before my alarm). Most mornings, I open a coffee can, savor the smell of the grinds, and make a very strong cup of coffee.

2. What's a song you might be persuaded to dance to?

I am not averse to dancing and have danced to many songs in my life -- some of which I am not proud. I can always be persuaded to dance to a Ramones song.

3. Where in the world do you live?


In my mind, in my house, in the city of Oxford, Mississippi, in the Southern United States, in North America, in the West, on Earth, third planet out.

4. What's a great night out for you?

Dinner at a restaurant in the Latin Quarter, Paris; off-Broadway play in New York; moonlight trip in a rowboat on the Vltava in Prague; and finally late night karaoke with my friends in Tokyo. (I've done three of four. Any one of them would be a wonderful night out).

5. What's a great night in?


Martinis and kung fu movie marathon.

6. If you were offered an all expenses paid trip anywhere in the world, where would you go?

A year in Tokyo; or birdwatching in Costa Rica.

7. What book do you wish everyone would read so you could talk about it?


Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World; or his short stories The Elephant Vanishes.


8. What movie makes you cry?

These are movies that I like to cry to. They are the ones that I believe have earned my tears. I cry at other movies but either the quality of the cry is not transcendent or the stupid movie has manipulated my tears. Here's a list of the good cries: Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru; Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies; Mike Newell's Enchanted April (a happy, melancholy cry); James L. Brooks' Terms of Endearment (I know, a classic tear-jerker, but darnit, both Debra Winger and Shirley Maclaine are just too good); I'm sure there are classic Hollywood films I am missing here. Kate will send me a list, I'm sure -- yes, I know Dark Victory [Ed: "Did the sun go behind the clouds?".

9. What makes you laugh?

This sums up my sense of humor. It's a cartoon from the New Yorker. I can't find the link but I'll describe it. A clown is sitting at a table in an outdoor cafe. He's holding a balloon and a tear trickles down his cheek. A woman stands at the table, looking like she's about to walk away. She says "If you must know, he makes me laugh." It's the balloon that gets me. I never get tired of it.

10. Are there fairies at the bottom of your garden?


Nope. Cats ate them. 

 Be seeing you, Miss Wendy -- can't wait!

Snapshots of Pop Culture

Here's a little taste of the trip to the Popular Culture Association Conference: we stayed at the Marriott Rivercenter which is a combination mall and canal, chock full of tourists and cheap Texas trash, er, souvenirs. I lived in that state for three years, eleven months, six days, five hours and fifteen minutes and I never understood the arrogant Texas chauvinism. I lost count of the number of Tejas tattoos I saw. I don't think I've ever seen anyone with Connecticut tattooed on their skin.

I had to take a picture of this because I couldn't decide if it was genius or the most horrible thing ever; I wish I'd taken a picture of the guy who was in it with his two tiny daughters. Scarred for life or prepared for the worst? In case you're wondering, it costs $2 for a "ride" in the machine.

We spent most of our time in panels seeing papers on all kinds of topics. Of course what everyone really looks forward to is chatting in the bar which is far more relaxed (though often just as thoughtful). Miss Wendy and Paul and I started things off on the right foot the first night.

It was my last year as chair of the Medieval Popular Culture area: we're combining with the Arthurian area (strength in numbers), so next year I have no responsibilities but writing my own paper. Naturally I've already come up with an idea for a special panel: anyone interested in a Romance & Comics, let me know. I attended the open forum on  Romance scholarship which was quite interesting: not surprisingly, there were only two men there. You gotta admire the chutzpah of a guy who'd bring this cup to that room full of women (or maybe it was just obliviousness):

PCA is a rather laid back conference, but there are still moments that people find stressful. Someone must have been trying to encourage a friend with this note that first appeared in one of the elevators, then on a painting in the hallway where I snapped it:

Saturday Miss Wendy wanted to wander around a little and see the sights after she gave her awesome presentation on Moto Hagio. Last time we were in San Antonio, the only touristy thing we did was the Ripley's Believe it or Not! "museum" which was amusing at least. So we headed over to the Alamo which is now classified as (no, I'm not kidding) "The Shrine to Texas Liberty."

I liked this shirt and the lotteria paintings in this store, but everything they had was unbelievably expensive, so I didn't feel too tempted to add to my belongings as I'm continuing to divest myself of things.

I'm always intrigued by weird stuff that other people don't seem to find interesting. I have odd tastes, I guess. But I loved the way electricity was anthropomorphised in this sign. It looks deliberately malevolent.

I was lucky on my flight out: after the unexpected overnight stay in Chicago a week ago, I was pleased to find that because my flight was overbooked, they bribed me to change flights with $400 in travel coupons -- and I didn't have to go to Chicago (Atlanta instead) and got there only an hour later than I would have anyway. On the way back, not so lucky, but that's okay. I had plenty of time to check out the new trends according to W:

What's more "punk" than an airbrushed model in a corset? Sigh. And I'm hoping the rumours that punk rocker Poly Styrene has died are just that, though she has been battling cancer for a while. I've been following her on Twitter and the new album is getting a lot of good press. I hope it's not true. [Sadly it is true: requiescat in pace, Marianne].

On the Road Again

Assuming all goes well, by the time this posts, I ought to be on a plane from Chicago to San Antonio. We shall hope for there to be no prolonged visit like Friday. If I had time to actually see the city, it would be different. I have many potential duties to accomplish in Chicago. But they are for a planned visit, not an accidental touristing. Best of all, the other end of this journey should reunite me with Miss Wendy and the AbFab duo will be on the rampage again. Much fun us anticipated.

One of the lovely things that has made travel much nicer lately is the advent of curated art in airports. In the Albany airport, there are exhibits from many of the museums in the region, including my fave EMPAC, to give you an idea what's at each museum.

You can step into Van Gogh's bedroom and other sights at O'Hare (if you know where to find them). Anything to make the experience less ugly is appreciated.

More anon!

Converting Monks with Slides in San Antonio

I was hoping to have time to write up the NT Live Frankensteins I saw for Tuesday's Overlooked A/V but I'm still working on my presentation for PCA, so it's unlikely to happen. I did upload a version of my speech with the Powerpoint slides embedded (very hastily, so it's a bit clunky) so they will make a little more sense in context.

Converting Monks Into Friars With Slides

eBooks: No longer the future

They're the PRESENT!

Yeah, Mashable has a story about how Kindle books are outselling hardcovers on Amazon and the L. A. Times has a long article on how ebooks are transforming the reading experience. Even most authors are prepared for the need to push the various electronic editions, but we're still figuring out the best ways to do that -- how do you promote without a physical object? That intangibility gives a lot of people discomfort.

I was supposed to be interviewed on the topic today, but the video interview became a telephone interview because of "breaking news" (I was relieved: haven't had a haircut since leaving for England) and now it seems to have been put off at least until tomorrow if not indefinitely. So I'll share my idea for a good quote:  I'm sure when Gutenberg printed his first bibles, there were doubtless people who said, "Well that's interesting, but I'm never going to give up my vellum.  It's painstakingly created by monks over months and sometimes year, with great attention to detail. Each one is individually written in the hand of the scribe and decorated with charming marginalia."

True enough, Gutenberg probably said. However, you can have this one right away. All of you. And for much less money.

Sure, there will continue to be printed books for a very long time. There will even continue to be handmade books for a long time. The digital revolution, though, has already happened. Jump on the wave to ride it or let it wash over you for now. But the wave is here. Like digital downloads of music, kids already born will consider it the norm. That's change.

UPDATE: I talked to the reporter today, although the story had already been recorded (which aired today; it's the second video that cycles up).  We chatted for a bit and she was intrigued by a number of things I brought up about my experiences teaching New Media and having both print and ebooks to promote. My BitchBuzz column this week is an expansion of this topic.

I'm So Very Sorry (Maybe)

My latest column for BitchBuzz examines the gendering of apology, based on a couple of events you may or may not have heard about unless, like me, you monitor all media like a Bond villain (yes, Kipper helps):

Here's a study in contrasts: As our own Rebecca Thomson reported, there was a brouhaha about laddish mag Zoo's agony aunt/actor/footballer-wannabe Danny Dyer's 'advice' to a reader, advising him to cut his ex's face so no one else will want to date her.

After the Twitter flurry, the mag posted a corporate 'apology':

Due to an extremely regrettable production error, an inappropriate and indefensible response to a letter has appeared in this week's issue.


ZOO editor, Tom Etherington, apologises unreservedly for any offence the response may have caused and has launched an internal enquiry to ensure lessons are learnt.


Zoo and Danny Dyer condemn any violence against women. A donation will be made to Women's Aid.

Production error, eh? Yeah, no one really believes that, but that's their story and they're sticking to it. A little grudging admission of error and token donation and DONE. You can almost hearing them washing their hands of this little annoyance...

As always, read the rest at BBHQ and see how Ellen Degeneres and clubbing baby seals fits into the story. I will finally be able to turn in all my grades today, I think, and be truly free of the semester's duties (so I can turn to all the things I've had to ignore in the last few weeks, sigh). Right now, I'm just waiting around for UPS who have irked me more than necessary this week. Grrr. I was hoping to catch a matinee this afternoon, but I guess it will depend on when the driver gets here.

BitchBuzz: Women Filming Women

My latest column for BitchBuzz incorporates some of my review of The Runaways. The Queen and I had an interesting discussion on Facebook about it -- I was a bit more critical of it, mostly because I found it choppy and too often given to clichés, but on the whole I liked it and would recommend it. Among the reasons:

The recently released Runaways movie, directed by Floria Sigismondi, gives an inside view of the ways women are exploited and manufactured for display in the glitzy world of rock-n-roll.

We've long ago grown accustomed to the star story so compelling laid out in countless reiterations of A Star is Born and could recite the arc by heart: talented kid with gumption struggles with obscurity for a few minutes before being discovered and almost immediately resenting the terrible toll that stardom takes, finally crashing and burning in glorious Technicolor [tm]. Lives that don't quite fit the mold get remolded; after all, the audience knows what it wants.

The Runaways both ascribes to this genre and complicates it...

As always, read the rest at BBHQ. Already had a nice comment from Cecilia Tan, who noted the disparity between the way the Sex Pistols have been mythologized but the Runaways merely dismissed as a novelty act. A gender issue? You bet. Will this film get the attention other rock-n-roll movies get in the music press or will it be dismissed as a chick flick? We shall see.

Into the West

There will be a wrap up of my trip to PCA and the visit to my folks in New Mexico soon. In the meantime, enjoy the quiet.

Steamy Reading & Hot News

As many of you know, I have a bunch of pals who write romance, so my latest column for BitchBuzz celebrates their success, which has been in the news a bit lately. Here's a snippet:

While you may still have in your head a picture of the old-fashioned bodice ripper of decades ago, one of the true advantages of modern romance is the wealth of types available for every taste. Not only are they not all about "alpha males" but there are romances specifically designed for older women, for gay and lesbian readers, for sex-shy Christians and for the kinkiest of BDSM folks. In short, they run the gamut.

And more people all the time are admitting that reading about attraction can be fun. Laura Clawson came out in the Daily Kos as an unashamed reader of romances. Busting up many of the myths about romances, Clawson throws down the casual contempt widely held for the genre. It's an easy target because in this supposedly advanced and futuristic century the one group of people you can get away with disparaging without any fear of repercussion is women.

Oh, and bankers...

As always, read the rest at BBHQ. Best of luck to my pal Saranna in the Dorchester Best-Cellar textnovel contest; I stole her name for my latest publication because it's so pretty - and she's such a hoot!

UPDATE: Saranna won!!

I have some exciting news to share soon, but I can't quite let it out of the bag yet. It sure put a spring in my step today!

BitchBuzz: I Hate Top 10 Lists

My latest column for BitchBuzz, grumbling about top ten lists:

If there's one thing I hate about the end of the year, it's the proliferation of Top Ten (and Top 100 and so on) lists. Everywhere you turn, there's another blowhard detailing what was really best about the last year or decade or even century. It really irks me.

To explain why, I have created my own Top Ten list in the hopes that the utter irony and chutzpah of this move will cause reality as we know it to implode or at the very least bore everyone so much that they swear off top ten lists forever.

As always, read the rest at BBHQ along with other fine pieces.

I'm just back from my travels, all of which went as well as might be hoped and with only minor irritations, which is fairly amazing for MLA. Dinner with Todd and Isabel at Eulogy was terrific, my breakfast po'boy at the Reading Terminal was delish, the panel went well and was well attended, lunch with Sandi was great -- we caught up on all kinds of news -- and then back to NYC and a bevvie with Karen at Grand Central -- first time we've met in person, glad to find her just as delightful as she is on-line -- and then up to Poughkeepsie where Robert picked me up and gave me a belated Xmas dinner and birthday cake. Quite a satisfying trip all around -- made sweeter by the fact that it was my MLA swan song! Whoo hoo -- I shouldn't have to make another trip to the world's most stressful conference™ anytime soon.

Kipper is happy I'm back, which he showed by wolfing down his food and immediately up chucking it. Ah, home. Now he's staring at the radiator as if there were something alive in it. Not at all disturbing, no.

BitchBuzz: Unique Halloween Costumes

Okay, most of the readers here won't need this particular column, but others will, so be kind -- and share! Yes, I know it's been a week since I last posted, but between Albacon and the Medievalism conference AND too many meetings and teaching all day yesterday, I'm still getting caught up.

So here's my [hastily written] column on interesting Halloween costumes (is the Victorian Squid not the ginchiest costume ever?!):

It's that time of year again: fancy dress calls for the spooktacular season. Forget about the tired old superhero route, pirates have been done to death and no, you can't go as a naughty nurse again. You have to try to be a little bit imaginative.

If you want to be like the hip kids, then steampunk is a must. Jump on this bandwagon before the rest of the world does, because the costumes are totally awesome. Like the recent exhibit at Oxford's Museum of the History of Science, steampunk paraphernalia rocks because it is both elegant and wicked cool.

As always, read the rest at BitchBuzz.

And YES, I am working on the posts about the cons, so coming very soon!

BitchBuzz: Mistress of Horror

My latest column gives some recommendations if you want to give a really good fright movie fest this month. Ah, the spooky season!

October! The season of the witch and all things creepy crawly. Sure, you're probably thinking about that big Halloween fright fest and chattering eagerly to your friends. But, what's this? They're rolling their eyes. Why?

Your films are lame.

What you need is to class up your offerings with some truly memorable films. God knows there are people willing to pay to see umpteen iterations of Saw, but you don't have to be one of them. Your friends will thank you.

For the early part of the evening, while the jelly-mould brain is setting up and the Real Lady Fingers are cooling, start out with atmospheric classics. You can't go wrong with the artsy Teutonic stylings of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Nosferatu. If your guests continue to gab through the screening, not to worry. Silent films create a stylish ambience and you will rise a few notches in the estimation of the connoisseurs.

Read the rest over at BB (though most of the readers of this blog will probably not need the recommendations).

BitchBuzz: It Makes You Gay!

My column this week chuckles a bit at a Republican senator's Chief of staff, who told an audience that "pornography makes you gay" and was not kidding. Whatever your thoughts about pornography, surely you'll agree that it's a kind of goofy thing to suggest. But it's just one more strange piece of the puzzle that is Americans' attitudes toward sex in general. Sorting out the Puritan heritage of shame from the capitalist efforts to commodify the body can be difficult for anyone (even a highly placed Republican staffer, I suppose):

Derisive news outlets jumped with relish onto the statements of Sen. Tom Coburn's chief of staff Michael Schwartz who, taking his lead from the sexual insecurity of ten-year old boys, declared that, "All pornography is homosexual pornography, because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards" and the best way to scare boys away from it was to tell them that porn makes you gay: "if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he’s going to want to get a copy of Playboy? I’m pretty sure he’ll lose interest. That’s the last thing he wants!"

You have to admire a man so focused on time management that he wants to instill homophobia and body shame all in the same moment [you can watch his earnest declaration on YouTube].

Read the rest over at BitchBuzz.

BitchBuzz: The New Puritans

My latest column for BitchBuzz responds to a recent trend in lit commentary, including Alan Bissett's book blog for the Guardian, the usual sort of 'things have gone too far, and now the pendulum must swing the other way' opinion. I think it's got a way to swing yet, particularly because this has become a very gendered discussion, meaning that it's women writers who have gone too far:

I was amused to read Alan Bissett's blog in the Guardian this week arguing that "Literature is due a new era of sexual modesty." It seems an odd pronouncement from a guy with a new book out on sexual addiction, but there seems to be a bit of this about.

It's not the least bit coincidental that this call comes from a male writer. While trumpeting the new frankness of sexual writing that calls body parts by their common names, i.e. the ones we all know rather than the ones the doctors use, he signals a desire to step back from this frankness. " Ironically, it is British men (and I'd have to include myself in this) who have been been more uptight about it all." He details a number of books (preseumably his own included) that portray men as sad, deluded victims of their own libidos, like Welsh's Porno and Stretch's Friction...

Read the rest at BitchBuzz.

BitchBuzz: Vampire Cheese

My latest column for BitchBuzz on vampire shows to watch while waiting for the next installment of Twilight or True Blood, shows a little chutzpah considering my editor had tweeted earlier that same day that one of "the things we're all sick of" included vampires. Have I got timing or what? She still published it.

If you find yourself chewing on wax lips while waiting for the next episode of True Blood or the second Twilight film, there are a couple of series that might just ease those sanguine jones for a time, though they've tended to fall out of toothy fashion.

If you like your vamps as do-gooders, check out Forever Knight, the saga of detective Nick Knight, an 800 year old vampire with a conscience who works the night shift as a cop, cleaning up the streets of, er, Toronto. Okay, glamourous it's not. But there's a low budget charm to the show, helped immensely by a game cast... [continue reading at BitchBuzz].

Python Reunites!

The surviving Pythons will be reuniting in NYC on October 15th for the premiere of a new six-part doco series that will be airing on the IFC channel October 18th-23rd. In addition to the documentary and timed to 40th Anniversary of the creation of Monty Python, The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) will award The Pythons with a Special Award honoring their outstanding contribution to film and television.

“This is the documentary I always hoped would be made - something so complete and so faithful to the truth that I don't need to watch it,” said Terry Jones.

The complete Python troupe – John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and even the late Graham Chapman – will attend this official Python reunion event, which will include a screening of the theatrical version of the Original IFC documentary Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer’s Cut). Following the screening, all five surviving members of the Monty Python team will sit down for a Q&A discussion and will be presented with a Special Award from BAFTA to honor their outstanding contribution to film and television.

Monty Python: Almost the Truth (Lawyer’s Cut) will be told in six parts, airing one-hour each night during IFC’s “Python-a-thon” beginning October 18, 2009 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. IFC will also air Python feature films including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

This six-part series features interviews with all the surviving Python members, along with archive representation for the late Graham Chapman. The Pythons tell their life story and reveal deeper truths alongside the more tried and tested Python history lessons. The documentary also features comedians and contemporaries including: Eddie Izzard, Olivia Harrison, Steven Merchant, Dan Aykroyd, Tim Roth, Lorne Michaels and Seth Green, among many others.

A select number of tickets will be available to fans online at www.IFC.com in mid-September.

[h/t to Todd! yes of COURSE I'm trying to get a pass to this]

BitchBuzz: Repetition

My latest piece for BitchBuzz is all about repetition, i.e. our addiction to sequelitis. I manage to name check the Fall, Clive Barker and Doug Bradley. Pretty good record for this vicinity:

"This is the three Rs, the three Rs," Mark E. Smith sang back in the late seventies, "Repetition, repetition, repetition."

I think that's become the theme of the naughties.

Of course it was already a trend ingrained in the minds of Hollywood moguls (if I can be forgiven for using the word "mind" in that context). Whether television or film, the sure-fire fall-back position has been repeat what worked before. Someone bought the straight to DVD Hellraiser: Hellworld (presumably), the eighth in a series which began in the late '80s and is about to be rebooted again.

Saw VI. Live Free or Die Hard. Star Wars III. Ernest Goes to Camp (Jail, Africa).

We dig repetition, apparently.

Read the rest and use the handy link below to share it on Facebook, Twitter (now that it's working again) and so forth.

Branding: Medievalist

Yes, the third prong of my branding identity, such as it is, has to be me the medievalist. I realise that all of my many attempts at branding only make it clearer that I have weird and esoteric tastes that resist any attempt to brand me for a potential audience. At least "medieval" is surely a more recognizable quantity than "Finnish mythology" I suppose. I do write about popular culture appropriations of the medieval, too, which helps connect this very challenging academic field into the realm of "normal" people (i.e. those who don't find it necessary to study half a dozen or so [okay, ten] dead languages -- although I do find it helpful to intimidate other scholars by listing all of them ;-).

Before I became a medievalist, I thought the same things about the period that most people do: it's all damsels in pointy hats, knights miladying and a lot of plague. Of course, most of what I thought I knew about the Middle Ages was wrong. I wouldn't have discovered that but for taking Stephen Mitchell's class at Harvard where I read Beowulf and Njál's Saga and discovered Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse literature and culture.

It changed everything! I was in love with the languages and had to read more, more, more -- and then I found myself in a PhD program in Medieval Studies and on my way to being an academic.

But it's a hard sell: folks seldom know much of anything about Old Norse and not that much about Anglo-Saxon, apart from Beowulf (and seldom much accurate about that terrific monster story). There's so much fun stuff! Last night at the medieval reading group that the friendly folks at Siena College invited me along for, we were reading riddles. Here's one to give you a taste of this puzzle poetry.

Exeter Book Riddle #9

Mec on þissum dagum deadne ofgeafum
fæder ond modor; ne wæs me feorh þa gen,
ealdor in innan. Þa mec [an] ongon,
welhold mege, wedum þeccan,
heold ond freoþode, hleosceorpe wrah
swa arlice swa hire agen bearn,
oþþæt ic under sceate, swa min gesceapu wæron
ungesibbum wearð eacen gæste.
Mec seo friþemæg fedde siþþan,
oþþæt ic aweox, widdor meahte
siþas asettan. Heo hæfde swæsra þy læs
suna ond dohtra, þy heo swa dyde.

Translation by Craig Williamson:

I was an orphan before I was born--
Cast without breath by both parents
Into a world of brittle death, I found
The comfort of kin in a mother not mine.
She wrapped and robed my subtle skin,
Brooding warm in her guardian gown,
Cherished a changeling as if close kin
In a nest of strange siblings. This
Mother-care quickened my spirit, my natural
Fate to feed, fatten and grow great,
Gorged on love. Bating a fledgeling
Brood, I cast off mother-kin, lifting
Windward wings for the wide road.

Do you know the solution?