Let's Geek Out About Folklore
Oct. 14th, 2019 09:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cathrowanSaturday 10 am panel at Scintillation 2.(Oct 12, 2019)
Herewith very sketchy notes with most of the book refs. Don't have time to Google complete citations so additions and corrections welcome.
WA= William Alexander (M)
JW= Jo Walton
GG= Greer Gilman
TNH= Teresa Nielsen Hayden
MAM= Mary Anne Mohanraj
I'm paraphrasing a lot. When I caught where panelists credited another person's writing/criticism, I've put it in quotes.
Book titles are on their own line with panelist's initials afterwards.
WA opened with a quote from Angela Carter about how stories are spoken, only recently begun writing them down.
TNH: Antiquarian collectors "folklore is too good for the folk"
GG: Folklorist to Cornish mummers as they paraded "You're doing it wrong, not not like what I said in the paper I wrote"
Stations of the Sun, Ronald Hutton (GG & JW)
Peasant Fires (JW)
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God [American Lit canon] TNH & MAM
MAM: traditions and forethought "7 generations backwards, 7 generations forward"
MAM: during the panel ref'd to several Canadian writers, incl. Nalo Hopkinson and Sylvia Moreno-Garcia.
Discussion shifted to magic realism, Latin American gets bundled into that genre when it isn't always.
JW: we've all heard of magic realism, I'd like to promote the term Realist Magicism. [my paraphrase - may not be mechanical, but author knows the system behind it, doesn't need to explain it to the reader.]
WA: "magic realism is always driven by post-colonial tension"
JW: reading Angela Carter, she's doing it with gender
MAM: tension between frameworks, native inhabitants vs newcomers
Gods of Jade and Shadow (MAM?)
JW: My theory is that genre is defined by pacing. Can combine them using that understanding.
MAM: Two south asian epics Mababharata & Ramayama. Universal cultural referent. Can be remixed esp. in pop culture to where it become 2-D. On the other hand Sita Sings the Blues (film) does it brilliantly.
GG: Morris dancing. Cecil Sharp canon vs Mary Neal's freedom. "Fixed and stained" [as for a stained glass slide].
Protection becomes petrification.
JW: British isles tradition - share the story. Very different from some NA indigenous folklore where story is situational. Depends on landscape, events such as childbirth, private to certain families or interest groups.
Uhura's Song (MAM)
Trail of Lightning (MAM) Roanhorse has gotten pushback for making private stories public.
[I'm going to cut in here a rec for a brand new book by my friend Leslie Main Johnson, about first nations situational stories from northern inland BC. It's called Wisdom Engaged: Traditional knowledge for northern community wellbeing, Patterns of Northern Traditional Healing series. University of Alberta Press, July 2019.]
WA: "children need mirrors and windows" addition "and curtains".
MAM: examples of hidden resistance and covert storytelling - Suzette Hayden Elgin women's language; Brazilian capoeira.
WA: Nisi Shawl & ? "are you a guest, tourist, or thief?"
JW: urban folklore, folklore of everyday life - that's another panel
Final remarks
TNH: remember folklore is bigger than you are
MAM: Martin Carthy said the only way to do folk music wrong is to not sing the song, so sing the song.
GG: folklore is always part of how we live in the world, one of the marks of use.
Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin (MAM)
[Edited Oct 15 after I was able to ask Greer on Sunday night about a couple of details.]
Herewith very sketchy notes with most of the book refs. Don't have time to Google complete citations so additions and corrections welcome.
WA= William Alexander (M)
JW= Jo Walton
GG= Greer Gilman
TNH= Teresa Nielsen Hayden
MAM= Mary Anne Mohanraj
I'm paraphrasing a lot. When I caught where panelists credited another person's writing/criticism, I've put it in quotes.
Book titles are on their own line with panelist's initials afterwards.
WA opened with a quote from Angela Carter about how stories are spoken, only recently begun writing them down.
TNH: Antiquarian collectors "folklore is too good for the folk"
GG: Folklorist to Cornish mummers as they paraded "You're doing it wrong, not not like what I said in the paper I wrote"
Stations of the Sun, Ronald Hutton (GG & JW)
Peasant Fires (JW)
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God [American Lit canon] TNH & MAM
MAM: traditions and forethought "7 generations backwards, 7 generations forward"
MAM: during the panel ref'd to several Canadian writers, incl. Nalo Hopkinson and Sylvia Moreno-Garcia.
Discussion shifted to magic realism, Latin American gets bundled into that genre when it isn't always.
JW: we've all heard of magic realism, I'd like to promote the term Realist Magicism. [my paraphrase - may not be mechanical, but author knows the system behind it, doesn't need to explain it to the reader.]
WA: "magic realism is always driven by post-colonial tension"
JW: reading Angela Carter, she's doing it with gender
MAM: tension between frameworks, native inhabitants vs newcomers
Gods of Jade and Shadow (MAM?)
JW: My theory is that genre is defined by pacing. Can combine them using that understanding.
MAM: Two south asian epics Mababharata & Ramayama. Universal cultural referent. Can be remixed esp. in pop culture to where it become 2-D. On the other hand Sita Sings the Blues (film) does it brilliantly.
GG: Morris dancing. Cecil Sharp canon vs Mary Neal's freedom. "Fixed and stained" [as for a stained glass slide].
Protection becomes petrification.
JW: British isles tradition - share the story. Very different from some NA indigenous folklore where story is situational. Depends on landscape, events such as childbirth, private to certain families or interest groups.
Uhura's Song (MAM)
Trail of Lightning (MAM) Roanhorse has gotten pushback for making private stories public.
[I'm going to cut in here a rec for a brand new book by my friend Leslie Main Johnson, about first nations situational stories from northern inland BC. It's called Wisdom Engaged: Traditional knowledge for northern community wellbeing, Patterns of Northern Traditional Healing series. University of Alberta Press, July 2019.]
WA: "children need mirrors and windows" addition "and curtains"
MAM: examples of hidden resistance and covert storytelling - Suzette Hayden Elgin women's language; Brazilian capoeira.
WA: Nisi Shawl & ? "are you a guest, tourist, or thief?"
JW: urban folklore, folklore of everyday life - that's another panel
Final remarks
TNH: remember folklore is bigger than you are
MAM: Martin Carthy said the only way to do folk music wrong is to not sing the song, so sing the song.
GG: folklore is always part of how we live in the world, one of the marks of use.
Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin (MAM)
[Edited Oct 15 after I was able to ask Greer on Sunday night about a couple of details.]
