Sunday, May 24, 2015

Cute Zombies 2015

It has started already. Like the other holidays, Halloween comes sooner and sooner each year, and Hallmark is one of the first to market its monstrous wares, including a kid zombie ornament for your Halloween tree (I guess). It is fairly ghastly, and I'm sure it will be a sell-out.

Happy Halloween! Zombie Ornament
Keepsake Ornament
3rd in the series
$14.95
Available July 11, 2015

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Take a peek into the creepy graveyard scene within this gourd ornament to see what lurks at night. Treat yourself or a friend to the third ornament in the Happy Halloween series! Learn more about Keepsake Ornaments.

Christmas tree ornament.

Each ornament in this series features a spooky Halloween scene.

On ornament:
RIP
2015

Tree-shaped series symbol around number 3.

Dated 2015.

Artist crafted.

Pre-packaged for easy gift giving, preservation and storage.

2.3" W x 3" H x 1.6" D


Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Reading The Golem and the Jinni

After a hiatus of many months, I finally finished Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel (2013). The book has an interesting premise in that a female golem and a male jinni find each other in New York City in 1899 and become friends. The two main characters are likable and (especially Chava, the golem) easy to relate to, but the story seems to be going nowhere in the middle of the book until the reader learns (in the end) how everything is intricately connected.

Chava, a masterless golem, is not a very typical representation of her class. She seems very human despite her obviously unnatural size, appearance, and physical strength and speed and reminded me very much of the plight of a modern-day Frankenstein's Creature trying to fit into a world that could easy hate and fear her.


Reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Just finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2010) this week. Author Seth Grahame-Smith offers an interesting premise about vampires in America and Lincoln's decades-long quest to eradicate them. The narrative jumps around a bit, but the book is an easy read. The ending (set in the 1960s) offers promise for a sequel (now available). The publisher's website includes a trailer for the original book and a mock documentary supporting its claims. 

For vampire fans, while we really get into Lincoln's head, we don't get much detail into the history of the undead (besides the suggestion of an emigration from Europe following the activities of Countess Bathory) and nothing about their natures (i.e. are the demonic?) besides that some are good (abolitionist/prohuman vampires) and some are bad (those allied with the South/Confederate States). There is also little information about how they die; they don't appear to decay, and there is at least one reference of hunters having to bury the body. 


Saturday, May 16, 2015

CFP Monstrous Hungers and Desires Special Conference Stream within The Monsters and the Monstrous Project (6/5/15; UK 7/15-17/15)

One more post from H-Announce

https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=221829

Monstrous Hungers and Desires Special Conference Stream within The Monsters and the Monstrous Project
Location: United Kingdom
Conference Date: 2015-06-05 (in 20 days)
Date Submitted: 2015-04-09
Announcement ID: 221829
Monstrous Hungers and Desires
Special Conference Stream within The Monsters and the Monstrous Project


Wednesday 15th July – Friday 17th July 2015
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations:
Humans can be consumed by desires; the need to possess and control, to hunger for more or to be different, to obtain or accumulate something or plainly satisfy an urge. Hungers and desires come from the “id” of the psyche; they are natural human urges. And yet, when allowed free reign they can be destructive both to ourselves and those around us. They can be playful or diabolical. They can pave a road to success or lead into the abyss of human existence. Many desires can also lead to addiction. Sometimes they cannot be explained; they just exist as relentless longings that demand to be gratified, up to the point of self-destruction or worse. Yet satisfaction after giving in to a craving may only be temporary before a hunger returns, stronger than ever, leaving behind withdrawal or painful memories. At the same time, suppressing a desire can be equally destructive and result in nightmares, identity crises, aggression or violence.

The hunger for riches and power causes the greatest mayhem and the greatest number of victims. The allure to give in to desires, secret wishes, “the dark side of the force,” has created more than one Dorian Gray in the past, and fiction as well as historical records are full of characters that have fought and lost these battles over their darkest longings. Consequently, there are people and institutions who will always believe that mankind is not supposed to give in to its urges, that these need to be controlled. “Gluttony,” for example, is one of the Seven Sins in Christianity, and a number of societies strictly regulate sexual relations.

Some desires create unmistakable monsters: the hunger for human flesh and blood of cannibals, vampires, werewolves and zombies for instance. But the lust to inflict pain, hunt and kill can also make beasts out of less “fantastic” beings, as we see in passionate murderers and torturers. To seek satisfaction in sex, fame or beauty has been associated with the monstrous too; for example, the wish for beauty can find an outlet in anorexia or painful body rituals. Sexual desires used to have their dark and gothic corners, but have increasingly become mainstream culture, not only since the publication of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” When desires are deemed pathological, unhealthy or disgusting by society, it regularly turns the “inflicted” into outsiders, even defines them as twisted or monstrous. The lust for fame can lure people into infernal actions and unspeakable deeds, often just to garner prominence in a YouTube video, but sometimes with the intention to wreak true havoc or to create a memorable albeit bloody legacy. Audiences, on the other hand, are relentless too when it comes to their own hunger for drama and sensationalism. Finally, one basic human driving force, love, is constantly leaving behind its own casualties in its wake.

For this special stream within the 13th Global Meeting of The Monsters and the Monstrous Project invites presentations from academics, professionals and practitioners with specific insights, experience, practices or skills concerning the understanding of these kinds of monstrosities.

Examples of the above can be seen in, but are not exclusive to, the following categories:

1) Pathologies and Addictions:
– Addictive personalities, drug and alcohol abuse; sex, food and other addictions
– self-mutilation, pain addiction
– eating disorders
– monstrous acts out of withdrawal, suppressed desire, frustration, rejection, failure, impotence
– suicide pacts, “extended suicides”
– paedophilia, serial killings, kleptomania

2) Power and the People:
– abuse of power; monstrous leadership visions and models of society
– manic desire for knowledge, cruel and dehumanizing experiments in the name of science
– charismatic leaders, ideologies, capitalism, consumerism, globalisation
– greed; violent and aggressive hunts for wealth, e.g. blood diamonds, ivory trade
– traditions, institutions, religions, governments, laws, sanctions, punishments

3) Sexuality, Love/Obsession:
- pornography, deviant sexual practices, dominance, submission, popular pornographic novels such as “Fifty Shades of Grey”
– stalking, rape, revenge porn
– fetishism, objectophilia, bestiality, necrophilia
– love madness, couple suicides, unfulfilled love, crimes of passion

4) Beauty, Fame and Subcultures:
– body enhancements, augmentation and rituals
– identity crises, claiming individuality in the public eye
– show business, celebrities, beauty and talent competitions
– dangerous and bizarre publicity stunts and extreme fan behaviour
– hunger for attention and community, sects
– alternative lifestyles, religions, cults

5) Literal and Metaphorical Manifestations:
– vampires, revenants, zombies and hungry ghosts
– werewolves, shapeshifters, dragons, and transformations
– angels, demons, spirit possessions and poltergeists
– cannibals, cannibalism and cultural hierarchies
– witches, wizards, fairies, goblins and halflings
– the above in literature, film, gaming, role play and transmedia entities

The Steering Group welcomes the submission of proposals for short workshops, practitioner-based activities, performances, and pre-formed panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation styles that encourage engagement.

What to Send:
Proposals will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word proposals should be submitted by Friday 5th June, 2015. Proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; proposals may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Monsters13 Proposal Submission

All abstracts will be at least double blind peer reviewed. Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:
Rob Fisher: m13@inter-disciplinary.net
Petra Rehling: petrarehling@gmx.de

The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.All proposals accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook.  Selected proposals may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.

For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/monsters-and-the-monstrous/call-for-papers/

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

Dr. Rob Fisher
Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1993 882087
Email: m13@inter-disciplinary.net
Visit the website at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/monsters-and-the-monstrous/call-for-papers

CFP Fairy Tale Monsters / Monstrous Fairy Tales (Spec Issue of Monsters and the Monstrous Journal) (6/26/15)

From H-Announce:

https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=220419

The Monsters and the Monstrous Journal Current Call for Submissions
Location: United Kingdom
Call for Papers Date: 2015-06-26
Date Submitted: 2015-02-14
Announcement ID: 220419
The Monsters and the Monstrous Journal Current Call for Submissions:

Volume 5, Number 1 (Summer 2015), Fairy Tale Monsters / Monstrous Fairy Tales

This special issue of the Monsters and the Monstrous Journal proposes to discuss the ideas of fairy tale monsters and monstrous fairy tales and explore how fairy tale monsters are defined, (re)created and (re)visioned.

Contemporary popular culture has seen the fairy tale genre expand to include elements of paranormal romance by mixing with more traditional supernatural monsters (eg. vampires, werewolves, etc.), become re-energized with teenaged iterations of classic characters (Monster High, Ever After High), and perseverate as a space of both invention and intervention.

Indeed, 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which has often been categorised as a fairy tale; Carroll himself specifically identified Through the Looking-Glass as “a fairy-tale” in the poem he wrote as an epigraph for that book.

Possible Topics:


  • Redefining, revisioning fairy tale monsters: mashups, redeeming the “monster,” and retellings (Once Upon a Time, Maleficent, Sleepy Hollow; Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, etc.) 
  • (Re)interpretations of fairy tales through the political, socio-cultural, (dis)abilities and sexual canon (eg. Liminality, deviance, inhumanity, witches, etc.) 
  • Monstrous fairy tales: violence, cannibalism, rape 
  • Disneyfication of the fairy tale: Who is the real villain? 
  • New vs. Old fairy tale heroes/heroines 
  • New vs. Old fairy tale villains, monsters 
  • East vs. West fairy tales (eg. Grimm and the use of non-western storylines; manga) 
  • Urban legends and the fairy tale (eg. La Llorona, the boogeyman, the Wolf as pedophile, etc.) 
  • Young adult fiction rewriting the fairy tale and its monsters (eg. Jackson Pearce, Lily Archer, Maggie Stiefvater, Francesca Lia Block etc.) 
  • Fractured fairy tales,  parodies and mash-ups: monsters revisited (eg. Marissa Meyer, Cornelia Funke, Danielle Page, etc.) 
  • Fairy tales, popular romance and erotica: sexual deviance, non-heteromative revisions; challenging the status quo (eg. Anne Rice, Alison Tyler, Eloisa James, etc.) 
  • Fairy tales and Hollywood (eg. Tim Burton, Matthew Bright, etc.) 
  • Visual fairy tales: opera, ballet, musicals (eg. Wicked) 
  • Monstrous teenage legacies: “Monster High” and “Ever After High” 
  • The metaliterary use of fairy tales and/or pedagogical uses of fairy tale monsters 


We are also looking for film and book reviews on any theme related to the idea of Monsters and the Monstrous. All materials reviewed should have been published or released within two years of the journal issue they are submitted to. Any queries, please contact the editor at the email below.

Submissions for this Issue are required by Friday 26th June 2015 at the latest. Contributions to the journal should be original and not under consideration for other publications at the same time as they are under consideration for this publication. Submissions are to be made electronically wherever possible using either Microsoft® Word or .rtf format. All images, artworks and photographs need to have the appropriate copyright permissions before being sent in.

We also invite submission to our special features on Non-English Language Book Reviews. Please mark entries for these topics with their respective headings.

All accepted articles, artworks and prose pieces will receive a free electronic version of the journal.

For more information please follow this link:
http://monstersjournal.net/submissions/

Length Requirements:
~ poetry, prose, short stories can be any length but not exceed 7,000 words.
~ articles should be between 4,000 – 7,000 words long
~ reflections, reports and responses should be 1,500 – 3,000 words long
~ book and film reviews should be between 500 and 1,500 words long

Submission Information:
All submissions should include a short biography (100-150 words) that will be included with the to be included submission if accepted. Please send submissions via e-mail using the following Subject Line:

‘Journal: Contribution Type (article/review/…): Author Surname’

Submissions E-Mail Address: monstersjournal@inter-disciplinary.net
Submissions will be acknowledged within 48 hours of receipt.

Style Sheets
All submissions should be formatted in accordance with the journal style sheets. A word template for this may be found here: Download Journal Template File (Word Document).

Proof/Checking
If accepted for publication, you will be provided with one opportunity to see a proof inspection copy of your submission. Only typographical or factual errors may be changed during proof checking stage. Revisions or addition to the text will not be possible.

Copy
All contributors will receive one complimentary PDF copy of the edition in which their submission appears. Camera-ready .pdf of prints will also be made available.

Dr. Rob Fisher
Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1993 882087
Email: monstersjournal@inter-disciplinary.net
Visit the website at http://monstersjournal.net/submissions/

CfP: Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable Collection (4/30/15)

Courtesy the IAFA site:

NOTE EXPIRED DEADLINE

http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2015/cfp-monsters-of-film-fiction-and-fable-edited-collection/

CfP: Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable — Edited Collection
Posted on April 4, 2015 by Public Information Officer
Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable: The Cultural Links between the Human and Inhuman

This proposed collection will explore the cultural implications of and the societal fears and desires associated with the literal monsters of fiction, television, and movies. Long tied to ideas of the Other, the inhuman have represented societal fears for centuries. While this depiction of inhuman as Other still persists today, postmodern times also saw a radical shift in the portrayals and long-held associations. The postmodern monster is by no means soft and cuddly; nevertheless, its depiction has evolved. Veering from the traditional, “us vs. them” dynamic, many contemporary works illustrate what posthuman theorists refer to as the “them” in “us” correlation. These new monsters, often found in urban fantasy, eradicate the stark separation between human and inhuman as audiences search for the similarities between themselves and their much beloved monster characters. The shifted portrayal also means that these select, postmodern monsters no longer highlight cultural fears, but rather cultural hopes, dreams, desires, and even humanity’s own inhumanity. This does not mean that the pure monsters of horror are eradicated in contemporary renderings. Instead, they too have evolved over the course of the 20th and 21st century, highlighting everything from socioeconomic anxieties to issues related to humanity and human nature.

Given the many and varied implications of the inhuman in media and their long and diverse history, this volume will examine the cultural connotations of the monstrous, focusing specifically on the monsters of modernism and postmodernism.

In particular, we are looking to fill in certain gaps, and welcome articles related to the following monsters:

– Ghosts
– Leviathons/behemoths—anything from Mothra to Dragons
– Science Fiction related monsters such as artificial intelligence and cyborgs

The proposal for this collection is in progress, and will be submitted once selections are made.

Please email the following to Lisa Wenger Bro (lisa.bro@mga.edu) by Thursday, April 30:
– a 300-350 word abstract
– a brief biography
– the estimated length of the full article
– the number of illustrations, if any, you will use (note, it will be up to individual authors to secure rights to images)

Full articles will be due by June 30. All accepted articles will be peer-reviewed.