It’s the convention season in the States, and the Mythopoeic Society’s Mythcon is on this weekend offering a contrast to the high-octane frenzy of things like Comicon. It’s a four-day event where people take time to examine (and define!) the whole genre of fantasy in great depth. People present papers on scholarly topics, and panels are convened to explore the landscape of fantasy in different directions. It’s all very low-key and relaxed, with little knots of people gathering in the shady arcades of the Clark-Kerr campus to argue about different editions of the Silmarillion etc. The breadth of knowledge amongst the Mythcon attendees is really amazing.
Tomorrow I’ll be more involved since there’s an interview with Philippa Boyens, one of the scriptwriters for the LOTR films, followed by a showing of the LOTR trailers and also of a section of an earlier Peter Jackson film, Heavenly Creaturs. After that, TORN’s Quickbeam and I will be on a panel talking about the movies from the fan perspective. More reports on that tomorrow.
Mythcon!
August 5th, 2001 by Tehanu
