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April 13, 2005
ICFA26 - Report from Robin Reid
Consumed with guilt over past years of promising Chrissie my con report and never following through, I swore that I would do this the *first* thing when I got back! I thoroughly enjoyed this year's conference. In the following paragraphs, I focus more on specific sessions I participated in or attended, but can say, in general, that the major events I attended were as intriguing and wide-ranging as usual.
Panel: Beyond Lord of the Rings: I have enjoyed moderating panel discussions on The Lord of the Rings, book and film. I would like to thank this year's panel, Charles W. Nelson, Elizabeth Whittingham, Don Riggs, and Tom Shippey, did an excellent job of speaking to many of the major issues regarding Jackson's adaptation of Tolkien's book. The question of what changes are necessary when moving from book to film, what changes are most controversial or could be challenged, and what effect(s) this popular film will have on the reception of Tolkien's (also controversial for some years!) novel were covered. At this point, I would encourage anyone interested to consider presenting a paper developing these general points in more detail and plan to send out specific calls and organize paper sessions in future years since I remain a major fan of both book and film!
Virgins & Divas: Genre Bending In Fantastic Film: I will be teaching a popular culture class using film and television series (episodes only) this spring, so was thrilled to see this session although disappointed that only two of the presenters were able to make it. "Undoing the Maiden: The Female Victim-Hero and Patriarchy in David Fincher's Alien 3" by Ximena Gallardo C. was a fascinating look at gender and genre bending in a controversial film which I was familiar with. I was most intrigued by "Virginal Fears and Wicked Desires in Dario Argento's Suspiria" by Douglas Keesey since I am not familiar with Argento's work. As often happens, there was some wonderful interconnections made between the two presentations in discussion afterwards.
SF Theory Round Table: The discussion of Chapter 1, ahem 2, ahem whichever, of Justine Larbalestier’s The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction was well attended by people who were interested in her blend of historical and linguistic methodology and what she has to say about the development of science fiction as a community, and the perceptions of "women" in the early years of formation in the United States. I would like to thank Len Hatfield and Joan Gordon for so ably training me in this kind of event, and all those who read and attended, and especially those who participated. (And can highly recommend the book for those who haven't had a chance to read it yet!)
Panel: Fan(dom) Methodology: My new area of scholarship, besides film studies, is fandom studies, and this panel was one of the most interesting events for me. Organized and moderated by Eden Lackner, the discussion by Rebecca Bley, Elizabeth Guzik, Karen Hellekson, Barbara Lucas, Cynthia Walker and myself (as a last minute substitute) covered a range of disciplines, methodologies, theories, and even legalities (since I had to learn about Human Subjects Protection on my campus last fall). I am not sure one can even call this a "field" since so many disciplines, potentially, are doing scholarship on "fandom" (sociology, anthropology, communications, media studies, psychology, cultural studies, and more). Since the publication of major monographs by Jenkins, Penley, and Bacon-Smith over a decade ago, the move of fans (and others) to the internet has opened up new questions and issues that have barely begun to be studied although apparently some fans feel they have been "over-studied"!
Fantasy and Fan Fiction: Merging Modes and Genres in Appropriated Texts: This session was one of three devoted to fan studies, embodying a range of disciplinary and theoretical methods for analysis. "'If I Wasn't a (Celebrity)': Alternate Times/Bodies/Realities in Celebrity Fiction and the Search for Identity" by Kristina Busse analyzed a specific genre of fanfiction (boyband). "Embodying the Geek Hierarchy: Media Fanfiction and Theatrical Performance" by Francesca Coppa made an intriguing argument for considering the performative/theatrical model for analyzing media fanfiction which has its origins in the dramatic genre. Finally,"'In Real Time': Role Playing Games and the Inflection of Fantasy in the Everyday" by Louisa Stein considered aspects of fantasy role playing games in different media.
Fantastic Family Film Values: As a fan of fantasy and sf film, I greatly enjoyed this session. The two presentations complemented each other beautifully, and I was impressed by the discussion afterwards. "Devilish Creatures, Communist Rabbits: The Fantastic Child" by Andrew M. Butler covered the construction of children in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, which I know, and another film, which sadly, I do not and so have forgotten the title. The discussion of "Spielberg's The Lost World: Dinosaur Family Values" by Andrew Gordon made some telling and witty points about the best family in that film (the T. Rex) compared to the bad families.
Many Meetings: Identity and Community in The Lord of the Rings Fan Fiction: I have no shame; this session was the one I presented on, with the two friends who are responsible for my entry back in active fandom and my new area of scholarship, Tolkien fandom(s). "'In the Darkness Bind Them': The Dark Erotic in The Lord of the Rings Slash Fiction" by Barbara Lucas examined how the contemporary club culture of BDSM operates in the different genres, Fictional People Slash and Real People Slash. "Bound to Their Fate: Character Drift Between Source Texts and Real People Slash Fiction in The Lord of the Rings" by Eden Lackner continued to develop her on-going analysis of how the source texts (in this case, the other roles played by the actors who played some of the secondary characters in the film) affect the fan fiction writing of those actor-characters in RPS. I used a linguistic methodology to analyze style and gender in my presentation on archives in "Breaking of the Fellowship: Competing Discourses of Archives and Canons in The Lord of the Rings Internet Fandom."
Tolkien's Legendarium and his Influences on Gestures and Nostalgia in Fantasy Literature: I've been cribbing liberally from the program information to make sure I have the correct titles and names for events, but as I remember this session, most of the paper titles changed, so my apologies to the presenters since I didn’t make careful notes at the time! Elizabeth Whittingham presented on various versions of Tolkien's "Valaquenta" and how the changes over time reflected a shift in the construction of religion and the Valar. Graham Sleight analyzed what seems to be a key structural element in fantasy, the matching and opposition of explanations of the "magic" as well along with the possible renunciation of it, focusing on a number of fantasy texts. Elizabeth Hoiem discussed dragons in a range of fantasy novels.
The Songs, Heroes and Races of Middle-Earth: This second Tolkien session I attended was interesting in the range of topics. In "Poems/Songs in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" Rebecca Ankeny analyzed the structural and thematic use of poetry and song in the novel. Jennifer Culver, in "Echoes of Dragon Slaying in The Lord of the Rings: Use of Language to Underscore the Heroes in and out of the Fellowship," used a linguistic analysis to see how Tolkien embedded dragons in the language of the novel even though no actual dragon is a characters. And in "Tolkien and the Shifting Value of Race," Joe Sutliff Sanders presented a fascinating discussion of racial constructions in Tolkien that tried to move beyond a too simplistic racist/nonracist binary.
Always Already Written: Fan/Fiction : This final session of fan studies was the most interdisciplinary of all the sessions I attended. In "Fan Fiction and the Gift: Writer, Reader, Text," Karen Hellekson applied anthropological concepts of the "gift economy" to fan fiction writing communities. The presentation by Larisa Mikhaylova, "Righteous, Proper and Good: Engendering Honor in Star Trek and Babylon 5," analyzed cultural and gendered constructions of honor in the two series. And finally, a project to develop an anthropological study, "Fanfiction: An Ethnographic Perspective," was presented by Bryn Neuenschwander and Alyc Helms.
Ed. Note: Robin also reported on her participation in the Cultural Identities Caucus meeting and her initial presentation of her new project, The Encyclopedia of Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy. I decided to move those sections into their own entries so that such important information wouldn't get buried in the midst of all the other cool stuff that Robin had to say.
Posted by ChrissieMains at April 13, 2005 09:03 PM