Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Thinking Makes It So? Hell As A (Fixable) State Of Mind In The Good Place And Lucifer, Erin Giannini

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

While different in genre, sitcom The Good Place and drama Lucifer share a certain irreverent tone and a somewhat unique approach to the afterlife. In The Good Place, there is no mention of gods or devils, only demons, a Good Place committee, and a judge. Lucifer, loosely based on Neil Gaiman’s graphic novels, however, features angels, demons, God, and the Devil, providing its own spin on established cosmology with embodied versions of prominent figures such as the archangel Michael and biblical brothers Cain and Abel. Yet what ties The Good Place and Lucifer together is a focus on …

Panel: “Hell Is Other People: Looking At The Political Rage Machine In Tolkien Fan Spaces And Media”, Alicia Fox-Lenz, Grace Moone, Cara Marta Messina

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Following the backlash against the Tolkien Society’s “Tolkien and Diversity” seminar and the airing of the first season of Rings of Power, social media fan spaces for Tolkien remain politically charged and reactionary. Building on the foundation of Mythcon 51’s Roundtable “Race, Racisms, and Tolkien,” and Craig Franson’s work showcased there and on the podcast “American Id,” we will discuss the current state of Tolkien discourse on social media and how to navigate the landscape as safely as possible.

Substance Abuse: C.S. Lewis And The Symbolic Geography Of Hell, Richard Angelo Bergen

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake the Romantic, proffers a Romantic vision of hell, and a geographical representation of capacity and scope with an energetic apology. On the other hand, C.S. Lewis’s vision of hell in The Great Divorce is that of a land without substance: a land of addiction to mental maladies, an endless mental substance abuse, an emptying of presence. As one surveys the conversations throughout the book, one gets an increasing sense of the importance of understanding place correctly, as a matter of eternal consequence. One chapter concerns a well-travelled ghost who repeats his …

“Hell Is Only A Word. The Reality Is Much, Much Worse”: Black Holes As Fantasy Gateways To Hell, Kristine Larsen

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Black holes are frequently described as the scariest objects in the universe, even by the normally staid scientists who study them. Like the warning on the gate of Hell in Dante’s Inferno, any (hu)man or matter that dares to cross the event horizon abandons all hope before literally being ripped to shreds by the object’s extreme tidal forces. As the heart of the beast is approached, the laws of physics break down, time loses its simple everyday meaning, and mathematical madness reigns supreme. It is no wonder that Hollywood has repeatedly adopted the black hole as more than merely …

Hell On Earth In Garth Nix’S Old Kingdom, John Rosegrant

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

I explore psychological meanings embedded in the Old Kingdom. Its River of Death is a hell impinging on life: Like Dante’s Inferno it has nine sectors; the dead take hideous Boschian forms; and helped by necromancers wielding “free magic” they often return to life. On this metaphor Nix builds the insight that desiring to live deeply and joyously risks turning hellish if early life was loveless. Necromancers and Free Magic are battled by Abhorsens and others wielding “Charter magic,” Free Magic transformed by symbols. Immersion in the Charter gives a joyous experience of connection to all life. Symbolization must …

Those Queer Devils: Queercoding Villains, Devils, And Demons In Mythopoeic Film And Media, Grace Moone

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

In the early years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, The Hays Code functioned as a rigid morality code designed to shape the norms of Western culture. Its far-reaching impacts remain visible even decades after its enforcement was no longer required. In this talk, we will explore one of the most pervasive elements of the code’s legacy: the prohibition against showing LGBTQ characters in a positive light, and the resulting phenomenon of “queer-coding” characters. The practice of portraying LGBT+ characters through a lens of villainy and stereotype to adhere to the Hays Code requirement that queerness be punished and depicted as undesirable …

Animated Dancing To Hell And Back: Disney’S Fantasia, Matthew Elfenbein

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Imaginative images of Heaven and Hell capture the sociocultural engagement with Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940), which demonstrates animated dancing bodies to represent the descent and passage of the hero’s journey. This journey is presented with many different forms of conflict and images that become unique through the qualities of the animated screendance. This form of dance on film is accentuated by the visualization of imaginative bodies, a conflict between knowledge and curiosity, and the spectacle of layering images on top of symbolic meanings to emphasize the power of identification with the audience. The spectators of this film are engaged with …

From Hell (Or Not): Representations Of Merlin And His Origins In The Comics, Michael A. Torregrossa

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

The Arthurian figure of Merlin has a long literary history, but he never seems able to shake off the effects of his parentage. In medieval tradition, Merlin is sired by inhuman powers: first a seemingly benign dæmon and then a decidedly wicked demon. This preternatural aspect to his conception grants Merlin the skills and powers he uses to support the realm, yet it also taints him as someone potentially dangerous. Although Merlin’s background cannot be changed, creative artists often choose to ignore or alter his origins, especially when retelling his story for mass audiences. In contrast, other creators, usually those …

Denethor’S Descent Into Hell, Craig Boyd

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

One character in Tolkien’s Legendarium stands out as one of the more morally sad and complicated individuals: Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. Although he tries to defend the kingdom he cares for, his own significant moral weaknesses subvert even the best of his intentions. His despair, provoked by the death of his favorite son—and the apparent death of his other son—sends him into a spiral of self-destructive harm from which there is no return. What accounts for this are three factors. First, his self-imposed isolation from others cuts him off from the necessary fellowship that could sustain his character; his …

Feasting At The Threshold: Transubstantiation, Queer Desire, And Homonationalism In Diane Duane’S The Tale Of The Five, Taylor Driggers

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Diane Duane’s ongoing pulp fantasy series The Tale of the Five (1979- ) is set in a world marked by constant bodily transgressions and surprises, where a human and dragon can occupy the same body and become lovers and a one-night stand can bring one face-to-face with God. This essay will argue that Duane’s series articulates eroticism in a manner comparable to Linn Marie Tonstad’s (2016) queer re-visioning of transubstantiation and bodily and spiritual transformation through the Eucharist. Acts of eating and drinking serve to highlight how characters’ pansexual, polyamorous relations with each other and the love of the Goddess …

The Underworld As The Heroine’S Journey Home: Marvel, Xena, And Mythic Reimaginings, Valerie Estelle Frankel

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Hell is traditionally a place of torment, where the young heroine, like Persephone or Eurydice, is kidnapped by the patriarchy, leaving others to rescue her. The last few decades, however, have offered a model closer to Sumerian Inanna, in which the heroine is enlightened by hell or even conquers it. Angela, Queen of Hel: Journey to the Funderworld by Marguerite Bennett (2016) gives its heroine this path. Winning back her beloved, Angela, sister of Thor and Loki, becomes queen of the underworld but then prefers to bring Sera back to earth in a flip on Eurydice. The Xena episode “Fallen …

Infernal Landscape In Jacob’S Ladder (1990) In Light Of Carl G. Jung’S Theory Of Individuation, Fryderyk Kwiatkowski

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Carl G. Jung’s conception of the human psyche as an inner realm that gives access to profound, numinous experiences inspired many artists and popular culture authors to portray heaven and hell as symbolic expressions of the opposite forces within the human psyche rather than cosmological or supernatural regions. In my paper, I will concentrate on how the Hollywood film Jacob’s Ladder (1990) directed by Adrian Lyne, by portraying the main character’s descent into a deathbed vision depicted as hellish reality, reflects Jung’s theory of individuation, a process of self-realization that aims at reconciling various elements of the psyche and achieving …

Hell On His Mind: Dean Winchester’S Journey To Hell And Back, Anna Caterino

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Season three of Supernatural (2005-2020) closes with a shot of Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) in Hell. The place has no discernible features and resembles neither the long waiting line nor the gothic castle of later seasons. The few elements that do characterize it, however, make it look like a brain, the labyrinth of ropes reminiscent of neurons. This association introduces Hell as a place that exists first and foremost in Dean’s dead. The lack of establishing shots and the abstract terms used to discuss Hell, damnation, and Dean’s experience further support this claim, working in its favor. After all, the …

The Righteousness Of The Damned In Jeffrey Konvitz’S The Sentinel, Raymond G. Falgui

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

The paper will examine the nature of the damned in Jeffrey Konvitz’s 1970s pulp horror novel The Sentinel by using a framework utilized by C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce, wherein damnation involves a species of spiritual blindness that masquerades as righteousness and shields the damned (for a time) from an awareness of their ultimate condition. Specifically, the paper will provide a character analysis of the co-protagonist Michael, arguably one of Konvitz’s more complex literary creations, and the role he plays in briefly elevating a generic genre-contrived plot into the realm of true spiritual horror. While making such a …

Welcome And Announcements, Mythsoc Stewards

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Welcome and Announcements

Join us for a screening of the Welcome and Announcements video, and have a cup of coffee before we get started!

Online Midsummer Seminar (Oms #2) "Fantasy Goes To Hell", The Mythopoeic Society

Mythcon Programs

FANTASY GOES TO HELL was originally intended to be our 2023 Midwinter Seminar, but our plans for an in-person Mythcon in 2023 fell through, and the topic proved to be so popular it strained the resources we had available for a seminar. Hence we proposed that we expand the seminar into what we have previously called a “Halfling Mythcon”—a virtual Mythcon taking the place of an in-person one.

FANTASY GOES TO HELL will run in parallel with general virtual conference tracks devoted to other topics in Mythopoeic Fantasy, such as presentations by award nominees and traditional after-hours programming. The 2023 …

Proposing A Measure Of Ethicality For Humans And Ai, Alejandro Jorge Napolitano Jawerbaum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Smarter people or intelligent machines are able to make more accurate inferences about their environment and other agents more efficiently than less intelligent agents. Formally: ‘Intelligence measures an agent’s ability to achieve goals in a wide range of environments.’ (Legg, 2008)

In this dissertation we extend this definition to include ethical behaviour and we will offer a mathematical formalism and a way to estimate how ethical an action is or will be, both for a human and for a computer, by calculating the expected values of random variables. Formally, we propose the following measure of ethicality, which is computable, or …

"Live Free, Read Hard:" Mass-Market Westerns, Mainstream Readers, And The Far Right, 1970-1999, Indigo Recker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes mass-produced western novels and their readers from the years 1970 to 1999. At the end of the twentieth century, when mass market western novels were sold at a rate indicating consistent readerships, the US was seeing a rise in far-right politics with events like the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff, the 1993 WACO siege, and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. This readership, and these political movements, are the focus of this dissertation, exploring how readers situated themselves into political discourse, how political meanings embedded in mass-market fiction aligned with racial, class, gender, and regional identities in contemporary US …

Deacon Freddie Walter Grant Sr.

African American Funeral Programs

Funeral Program for Deacon Freddie Walter Grant Sr. on Aug. 5, 2023 at The Original First African Baptist Church

Mrs. Kathy Lovett Ulrich

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Phillip "Phil" Ricks

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Hoping As A Transformational Imperative In Puerto Rico: A Phenomenological And Grounded Theory Study Within Colonized Space, José Luiggi-Hernández

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the United States continues to restrict Puerto Rico’s self-determination and imposes oppressive institutions such as the Oversight Board, the people of the archipelago live in precarity and hopelessness. Limited psychological research on colonialism has focused on the detrimental impact of oppression and its influence on the development of fatalism and the inferiority complex. On the other hand, existing psychological theories of hope fail to describe how it is lived within the post-colonial context and to explain the ways in which this psychological phenomenon arises even in the face of systematic dehumanization. As Puerto Ricans show evident signs of hope …

Ms. Jeanette Clifton

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Discussing Yasmina Khadra’S Novel The Sirens Of Baghdad In The Upper Secondary Classroom To Promote Intercultural Learning, Karl Ågerup

Essays in Education

Based on interviews with four teachers who engaged in discussions about Yasmina Khadra's novel The Sirens of Baghdad with a total of 92 students, this article explores the potential of using fictional narratives to achieve Global Citizenship-related goals in upper secondary education. The novel, which portrays the journey of a young aspiring Al Qaeda terrorist in Iraq, emerged as a response to the increasing need in the Western world to mitigate intercultural tensions following the September 11 attacks. The article addresses the novel's capacity to promote intercultural understanding while acknowledging practical challenges such as intense emotions in the classroom, potential …

Vol. 58 No. 1 - Whole No. 396, Megan Abrahamson

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 57 No. 4 - Whole No. 395, Megan Abrahamson

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 57 No. 3 - Whole No. 394, Megan Abrahamson

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 57 No. 2 - Whole No. 393, Megan Abrahamson

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 57 No. 1 - Whole No. 392, Megan Abrahamson

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 56 No. 4 - Whole No. 391, Megan Abrahamson

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.