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September 05, 2004
Another 2004 Conference Report
by Don Riggs:
This was possibly my favorite ICFA yet. I was involved in two back-to-back panel discussions of Tolkien; the first, on Teaching Tolkien (which I chaired), exposed me to some very good and very different approaches to teaching Tolkien on the university level, with specific course materials in handouts from Chuck Nelson and Faye Ringel. The second, much better attended (and admittedly with much broader interest) was the panel discussion on Tolkien's novels vs. Jackson's films I MEAN novels AND films. The discussion was intense, dedicated, varied in p.o.v. and featured the best sound bite (for me) from the whole conference. It was from Edward James, and was the opening comment for the whole panel discussion: "I have five words to say: the Scouring of the Shire."
As a result of the last panel, I got to see and discuss Tolkien issues frequently with Liz Whittingham, Lori Lipoma, and Edward James in particular, and others at times as well, throughout the conference. However, I also had some very valuable input on Frankenstein films from that session (I am writing the Frankenstein Monsters article for the Westfahl Encyclopedia), and was overcome with the riches (no embarrassment!) of TWO sessions on Anime, both of which dealt wholly or in part with Hayao Miyazaki!
Hats off to Stefan Hall for organizing the Grad Student Mentoring program. He paired me up with Australian Magical Realism writer Glenda Guest, with whom I had many interesting and fruitful -- to me, and hopefully equally so to her -- encounters.
The one disappointment I had was my inability to go to more of the writers' readings -- the conference was so fully scheduled, that I found my academic needs, as in the need to attend the Frankenstein movies session and the anime sessions (I am the faculty sponsor of Drexel's anime club), not to mention the four sessions I was involved in, whether giving a paper, chairing a panel, being a member of a panel, or reading my own poems (surrounded by the truly impressive Marilyn Jurich, Joe Haldeman, and Dave Lunde), that I had little flexibility to go to other sessions I might have wanted to.
Posted by ChrissieMains at September 5, 2004 11:49 PM